Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

I know, that some TEA members have bought a NanoVNA 2.

A few minutes ago I've found this email in my inbox:

(You are receiving this email because you've ordered a NanoVNA V2 from
our store on Tindie).

Hi, we've recently seen a large amount of ePacket shipments take over
60 days to arrive. We are in contact with China Post, who said that
that packages are slow to leave Shanghai airport due to lack of
flights. We would greatly appreciate your patience at this time, and
apologize for the inconvenience caused. China Post has assured us that
your shipments are not lost, they are just waiting for a flight.
Following Aliexpress's moves we will be extending the order protection
time to 120 days. If your order does not arrive within 120 days of
shipment, or if tracking shows that the package has been returned,
please contact us and we will be sure to give you a resolution.

If you have any questions please use the nanovna-v2 support forum,
which we check regularly:
https://groups.io/g/NanoVNA-V2/topics

Thanks
- HJ

Just in case, if you are curious where your NanoVNA 2 is.

Thanks for the update. I don't have a NanoVNA 2 on order, but I've been waiting on some other stuff from China and earlier heard the same issue — lack of outbound flights.

[cyclin_al]

As usual, I find myself behind in the conversation.  Yes, I actually went through 30 pages or so to catch up, instead of asking Cubdriver for a synopsis 

Anyway, in the meantime I ordered a SSD from a shop 500m away from my office to be delivered home 50km away and instead it shipped from near a dwagon lair 500km away.  It felt like it took forever, but now my Windows7 desktop works again.  It actually was forever, since bd139 was able to order a SSD, send it back, order the correct SDD and receive it in less time than the shop took to send mine out... and then delivery took a long time after that

With a working computer again, I topped up my Digikey shopping list with an ESD mat to get free shipping and was surprised at the price.  I took a second look and found a nice ESD mat on ebay based on this recommendation: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/so-what_s-a-decent-but-cheap-esd-workbench-mat/msg1354206/#msg1354206.  So now I have what I want; the mat also shipped from near the dwagon lair, but this time only took 5 days from order to delivery.    However, what I need is stuck in a Digikey shoppping list for $2, only $98 short of free shipping.

At least the money saved can go to TEA, right?  WRONG.  SWMBO reminded me that the garcon is almost old enough to be allowed to play Minecraft; we have been telling him for almost two years that he needed to wait until he was old enough.  I took a look and it turns out our home office computer (the one mentioned above that needed the SSD replacement)  is the only machine we have that is capable of running that game.  So, it is time for a new home desktop, which is not as good as TEA, but will be a nice upgrade.  Not only that, but I have not assembled a computer in over 15 years now.     The recent recommendations on computer components in this thread might be wee bit expensive since the budget will be approximately $1000CAD; of course I will do my best to let it go a bit over budget (shhhh).

With computers being a common topic, I did try to pull my old laptop off the dust pile and fire it up.  I thought it only sat there on the pile a few months.  Must have been longer since it was next to useless.  It has an Intel N270 running Windows XP     Time to experiment; I am thinking of trying xubuntu 18 but open to recommendations of suitable OS for a small boat anchor.

[syau]

I should have my .6A slow blow fuses tomorrow from Mouser...then will be the moment of truth on whether that 184 actually works or not. The seller offered me a partial refund, but I haven't gotten any reply on a proposed amount...

Got the fuses. Good news and bad news. Good news no fireworks on power up. Bad news, it's definitely not fully working. Only some markers are stable. Others are unstable. Troubleshootin time! 

After a nice long warm up, alignment, and much control exercising, the 184 is 95% working. The other 5% is the H.F. sine marker function, which appears to be dead as a doornail. 

Also, FWIW, the power supply is completely in spec. All three rails are correct voltages and ripple is better than specified.

Deoxit and IPA wash on the RF selector get back the 5ns but the 2ns output level still noisy and below the required level on my unit.

[bitseeker]

As usual, I find myself behind in the conversation.  Yes, I actually went through 30 pages or so to catch up, instead of asking Cubdriver for a synopsis 

I've almost caught up myself — 20 pages behind this week.

With computers being a common topic, I did try to pull my old laptop off the dust pile and fire it up.  I thought it only sat there on the pile a few months.  Must have been longer since it was next to useless.  It has an Intel N270 running Windows XP     Time to experiment; I am thinking of trying xubuntu 18 but open to recommendations of suitable OS for a small boat anchor.

Xubuntu or Lubuntu work great on old hardware. I also use it in VMs since it's light. If you have something really old, Puppy Linux is an option. Last I looked, Damn Small Linux was defunct.

[bitseeker]

Rack of ribs has been rubbed with Montreal Steak seasoning, seared both sides & slathered in a layer of the good stuff; now for the "Texas Crutch" : Seal it all up in aluminum foil and roast at 275-295°F. In a couple hours should be fall off the bone tender and ready for the final coats of sauce.

mnem
yummeh.

Man, oh man, oh man. It's too late at night to suddenly be so hungry. Yum!

[tautech]

You missed the best pro framing hammer Estwing ever made:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000224V9/ref=dp_cerb_1

Nope. I've had several, and the 25-oz Big Blue beats 'em all hollow; and honestly, so do the Utra Series for getting work done. Estwing's implementation of the magnetic nail starter is a game-changer.

When I worked interior construction & make-ready out of a Bucket Boss, the E22L (same hammer in leather grip) was my "everyday" hammer; again, an awesome peg-beater. Too effing long for a toolbox hammer tho.

Grand-dad was a great bear of a man... he favored a E30L in leather grip. That fucking this is a toothpick short of a post maul. 
mnem
*mallet-head*

Right, 45 years ago as a new apprentice we were issued with ya std blue 20oz Estwing and they were a pretty good hammer and a few years later I bought a leather handled one that I used for some years and it's still with me minus a few leather rings. 
Way back when, Estwing made their name with leather handled offerings as it was before the days synthetic handles yet in a lifetime affiliated with the trades it's very rare to see a tradesman swinging leather handled Estwings here, maybe the climate here doesn't suit the leather as it's not unusual to need to work in the wet when a job has to be done.
There's very good reason the 20oz has been the universal trademans hammer as it's versatile enough for framing and finishing but more the weight of it is such that the average guy can spend his working life swinging 20oz without the wrist or elbow problems that force some from the trade.
I well remember my first day being assigned to a 3rd year apprentice nailing bone dry ceiling battens underneath bone dry trusses.....I thought my arm was gunna fall off !
No nail guns in them days and the oldies didn't like the piss thin nails they shot so reckoned they were only good for sissies ! 
Used the 24oz's later in life but didn't like them as they are too heavy for the av guy and not versatile like the little 20oz. An uncle got the 24oz when in the states and he loved it primarily for fencing where he could reach staples on the bottom wire from the wrong side of the fence.
The 22oz I have now is hard to beat except for finishing as it's got the cross hatched head but the straight claw for demo work is better than anything else I've used except in close quarters work where you can stab yourself with the backswing if not awake to it. 
Cross hatched heads are something many have never had experience with but when you've never lost staple since using one speaks volumes IME.
Only had mine for 10 years now and would replace it with the same in an instant......now we can get them in NZ. 

Yes the 24oz can bash a 4" nail in with a single hit but try that all day and you'll be wishing for a hammer with a little less weight

[bitseeker]

Tek (and other goodies) alert!

Anyone in or near Santa Barbara, California? Pick up only.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Business-Industrial/12576/m.html?item=164222006063&_ssn=sb_sos

Did Cubdriver say he was heading west?

[bitseeker]

And now on to ..the story to my Frankenstein-Agilent 8110A:

...

After all it was fun to build at least two working 8110As from parts of three 8110As.

I might sell the one-channel unit to get money for future TEA projects.
At the moment I enjoy having not one but two 8110A pulse gens.
-That I don't really need.

Pure TEA.      

And that was too good to eventually be swept away by the tidal wave of TEA posts. Added to the POI!

[tggzzz]

After a nice long warm up, alignment, and much control exercising, the 184 is 95% working. The other 5% is the H.F. sine marker function, which appears to be dead as a doornail. 

Also, FWIW, the power supply is completely in spec. All three rails are correct voltages and ripple is better than specified.

Deoxit and IPA wash on the RF selector get back the 5ns but the 2ns output level still noisy and below the required level on my unit.

What's your scope+probe/cable's bandwidth? Even my 350MHz Tek485 won't show the 2ns at full amplitude.

The 184 works by "stealing" power from the 10MHz crystal and amplifying the 50th harmonic. It is easy to not have enough input power or gain.

Don't forget that the 184 is designed to set the horizontal scale, so the amplitude isn't that important.

[tggzzz]

With computers being a common topic, I did try to pull my old laptop off the dust pile and fire it up.  I thought it only sat there on the pile a few months.  Must have been longer since it was next to useless.  It has an Intel N270 running Windows XP     Time to experiment; I am thinking of trying xubuntu 18 but open to recommendations of suitable OS for a small boat anchor.

I run xubuntu 14.04 (haven't bothered to upgrade, so I don't know about 18.04) on a 10yo netbook with an 1.6GHz Atom processor. That was WinXP until the disk died and Microsoft refused to allow me to reinstall it.

It is just fine, even on the low-resolution screen.

[med6753]

With computers being a common topic, I did try to pull my old laptop off the dust pile and fire it up.  I thought it only sat there on the pile a few months.  Must have been longer since it was next to useless.  It has an Intel N270 running Windows XP     Time to experiment; I am thinking of trying xubuntu 18 but open to recommendations of suitable OS for a small boat anchor.

I run xubuntu 14.04 (haven't bothered to upgrade, so I don't know about 18.04) on a 10yo netbook with an 1.6GHz Atom processor. That was WinXP until the disk died and Microsoft refused to allow me to reinstall it.

It is just fine, even on the low-resolution screen.

I bought a Dell 1012 Netbook with the Atom processor and Windows 7 "Starter" and it was a slow POS. I stuffed it with as much memory as possible (2Gb?) and tweaked it and shut off hardware that I didn't need, like bluetooth, and it was still slow. You couldn't even watch videos on it without an occasional stall and hang. Eventually ditched Win7 and installed Ubuntu and it was better but not much. Finally sold it to someone who collected them.  I guess they were a glutton for punishment. 

[mansaxel]

If there's ever a problem with the forum, I have an OC-48 here now and willing to host anything necessary, for free!... 

Oh, my. I haven't seen a OC-48 in civilian production use in more than 10 years. Sweden backbones are 10G (rare) or 100G (in multiples) Ethernet today. Access to customers is 1GE or 10GE.

Not that I mind OC-48. SDH/SONET, especially Packet over SONET, is a much more complete solution catering to the complex environment of WAN connections. The carrier industry seems to be on the path to reinventing all features of PoS in Ethernet, though, what with BFD, LLDP, SyncE, IEEE1588, etc. Some of it is good, other parts sport all the tell-tale signs of a royal bodge.

[Cubdriver]

Tek (and other goodies) alert!

Anyone in or near Santa Barbara, California? Pick up only.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Business-Industrial/12576/m.html?item=164222006063&_ssn=sb_sos

Did Cubdriver say he was heading west?

Damn this farging coronavirus!!  SB is within easy driving distance from where I go when I'm out there.  No plans that I know of at this point. 

-Pat

[BU508A]

@BU508A Many thanks for your piece of filter material, it arrived today along with your surprise package to keep it company during the posting, it does get kind a lonely I guess in an envelope  I'm sure that I can find a use for them somewhere along the way. Here are a couple of photos with the filter installed and lit, beautiful contrast now 

My pleasure. 

That was exactly my thought. Traveling alone can be sooo boring.      I got an omnibus volume of some electronic parts from Rohde & Schwarz and it contained a huge amount of those µA709 OpAmps and I thought, they could be a nice company. 

Glad, that you've enjoyed it.   

The x-tal tester is looking much nicer with that filter, isn't it?   

[Specmaster]

You missed the best pro framing hammer Estwing ever made:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000224V9/ref=dp_cerb_1

Agree, that is what a workmans hammer looks like, the others look like they should be in a display case 

[Wolfgang]

@BU508A Many thanks for your piece of filter material, it arrived today along with your surprise package to keep it company during the posting, it does get kind a lonely I guess in an envelope  I'm sure that I can find a use for them somewhere along the way. Here are a couple of photos with the filter installed and lit, beautiful contrast now 

My pleasure. 

That was exactly my thought. Traveling alone can be sooo boring.      I got an omnibus volume of some electronic parts from Rohde & Schwarz and it contained a huge amount of those µA709 OpAmps and I thought, they could be a nice company. 

Glad, that you've enjoyed it.   

The x-tal tester is looking much nicer with that filter, isn't it?   

... just a question: Does you omnibus also contain vintage transistors (TO-18) ? I am working on some esoteric oscillator project where I need *old* parts that have not been made using modern production processes.

regards
  Wolfgang

[bd139]

You missed the best pro framing hammer Estwing ever made:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000224V9/ref=dp_cerb_1

Agree, that is what a workmans hammer looks like, the others look like they should be in a display case 

Programmers' hammer:

[BU508A]

... just a question: Does you omnibus also contain vintage transistors (TO-18) ? I am working on some esoteric oscillator project where I need *old* parts that have not been made using modern production processes.

regards
  Wolfgang

Let me check this this evening. Anything special I should look out?

[Specmaster]

(Attachment Link)

Am I the only one curious to know what Dave does think about us? He barely mention us.
PS: A big thank to you all, not only we do not need a mod, but also there is always something interesting to learn here and the tech level is very high for my standards.

I think you'll find that Dave does some moderation himself and there are others that help. If you watch many of his videos he often mentions us in them as we are now one of if the biggest threads on the forum and I think that he is very proud of his forum and rightly so. I understand that it is possibly the largest in the world but I do often wonder just how much longer he can continue to finance it given the current state of the world. I think we owe a lot to Dave for his generosity in provided us with this lovely platform and I for one salute him.

Well said, Zucca & Spec. I concur.

BTW, this thread is now not only the largest thread by number of replies, it's also #1 in total views.

Thanks for the update, it only had to be a matter of time before we acquired the top spot, we have a wonderful membership from beginners right through to experts in many fields of engineering and so many comedians as well, whats not to like eh 

[BU508A]

You missed the best pro framing hammer Estwing ever made:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000224V9/ref=dp_cerb_1

Agree, that is what a workmans hammer looks like, the others look like they should be in a display case 

Programmers' hammer:

knocking-off time hammer:

[BU508A]

(Attachment Link)

Am I the only one curious to know what Dave does think about us? He barely mention us.
PS: A big thank to you all, not only we do not need a mod, but also there is always something interesting to learn here and the tech level is very high for my standards.

I think you'll find that Dave does some moderation himself and there are others that help. If you watch many of his videos he often mentions us in them as we are now one of if the biggest threads on the forum and I think that he is very proud of his forum and rightly so. I understand that it is possibly the largest in the world but I do often wonder just how much longer he can continue to finance it given the current state of the world. I think we owe a lot to Dave for his generosity in provided us with this lovely platform and I for one salute him.

Well said, Zucca & Spec. I concur.

BTW, this thread is now not only the largest thread by number of replies, it's also #1 in total views.

Since my last checking, bd139 managed to climb up two positions of the top 10 posters here. 

[Specmaster]

@BU508A Many thanks for your piece of filter material, it arrived today along with your surprise package to keep it company during the posting, it does get kind a lonely I guess in an envelope  I'm sure that I can find a use for them somewhere along the way. Here are a couple of photos with the filter installed and lit, beautiful contrast now 

My pleasure. 

That was exactly my thought. Traveling alone can be sooo boring.      I got an omnibus volume of some electronic parts from Rohde & Schwarz and it contained a huge amount of those µA709 OpAmps and I thought, they could be a nice company. 

Glad, that you've enjoyed it.   

The x-tal tester is looking much nicer with that filter, isn't it?   

Yep, it sure is, as mnem, said, it looks finished now.

[bd139]

If there's ever a problem with the forum, I have an OC-48 here now and willing to host anything necessary, for free!... 

Oh, my. I haven't seen a OC-48 in civilian production use in more than 10 years. Sweden backbones are 10G (rare) or 100G (in multiples) Ethernet today. Access to customers is 1GE or 10GE.

Not that I mind OC-48. SDH/SONET, especially Packet over SONET, is a much more complete solution catering to the complex environment of WAN connections. The carrier industry seems to be on the path to reinventing all features of PoS in Ethernet, though, what with BFD, LLDP, SyncE, IEEE1588, etc. Some of it is good, other parts sport all the tell-tale signs of a royal bodge.

Most WAN stuff these days is a complete bodge I have found even if the protocol stack being used is sensible. Right in the middle of one now which involves 4 parties (DC, us, Amazon, MPLS provider) trying to get a redundant 10GbE link up to two DCs. No one appears to have thrown any failure scenarios at it. "oh so if this port goes down, what happens?". Silence apparently!  I'm not even the bloody network guy but in the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king. And my remaining eye has astigmatism.

As for SDH, I think we should make all system software programmers configure and use a E1 circuit run over some damp ethernet pairs bought from a hamfest, close to numerous squirrels for six months before being allowed near anything production grade.

Since my last checking, bd139 managed to climb up two positions of the top 10 posters here. 

I should go do some work  . Today's excuse is I'm waiting for gzip 

[Zucca]

Since my last checking, bd139 managed to climb up two positions of the top 10 posters here. 

SeanB is another kick ass guy, what he knows is immense. Nothing too much technical just easy concrete tips.
For theory/circuit analysis EE stuff Kleinstein is for me the No. 1.

[McBryce]

@BU508A Many thanks for your piece of filter material, it arrived today along with your surprise package to keep it company during the posting, it does get kind a lonely I guess in an envelope  I'm sure that I can find a use for them somewhere along the way. Here are a couple of photos with the filter installed and lit, beautiful contrast now 

My pleasure. 

That was exactly my thought. Traveling alone can be sooo boring.      I got an omnibus volume of some electronic parts from Rohde & Schwarz and it contained a huge amount of those µA709 OpAmps and I thought, they could be a nice company. 

Glad, that you've enjoyed it.   

The x-tal tester is looking much nicer with that filter, isn't it?   

... just a question: Does you omnibus also contain vintage transistors (TO-18) ? I am working on some esoteric oscillator project where I need *old* parts that have not been made using modern production processes.

regards
  Wolfgang

Any particular part No.s you are looking for? I have boxes of old TO-18 transistors and probably a few of those Germanium ones like the AC128 (no idea what the case name is).

McBryce.