Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

allergic to celery. But will gladly take you up on the meat only offer if I happen to be in the greater Toronto area ...

Yeah, not a lot of choice for us anymore; we had to evict tubers & most grains from our diet. I was raised on Polock/Italian/Welsh family recipes which are all heavily reliant on garlic, onions, bell peppers & celery.

Then I married a Cajun girl, and that cuisine literally refers to these flavors as "The Holy Trinity".   If I couldn't offset that with a boatload of carrots, I'd be well & truly fooked.

mnem
Woops... well past lunchtime; need to make some for the little grrl...

[Saskia]

s/celery/habanero/

[mnementh]

From the A LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO HOME Dept...

https://newsthump.com/2020/08/05/people-who-say-lets-agree-to-disagree-are-wrong-and-should-fck-off-say-scientists/

mnem
*impairing productivity since nineteen mumblety-mumble*

[mnementh]

s/celery/habanero/

LOL... substituting that much habanero would make my wife & I both explode. The celery is not just about flavor; it's also about fiber and volume. Low-carb makes such considerations very important.    Asparagus trunks, carrots & broccoli also fill this niche well in the slow-cooker. 

But sure... if you ever make it up here, I'll gladly cook for you. And Sriracha on the table since McIlhenny's is now so passe'. 

mnem
*heeds the urgings of a belly full of warm meal; toddles off to take a nap*

[factory]

Another ebay win. I'm definitely going back to my old habits 



Looks like it needs a bit of TLC this one.

I would like one of those, too. But they tend to be too expensive for a miser like me.

Saw that earlier too, but didn't see it was BIN as the app is broken (missing icons), looks nice & has a full set of shoes (which seems to be a rarity for HP in this size of case). There is a nice small 200 series on the bay too.

David

[AVGresponding]

Got some 8-pin DIPs on the AVO M801 pcbs marked 062DA JRC, and what I take to be a batch/date code.
I'm guessing they are TL062 clones? My google-fu is not up to par today. Input invited.

Already removed a low-reading PTC (1.4k) and an open 47R fusible resistor. Somebody really beat the shit out of this one, electrically speaking.

This thing is based around a 7106, with just 3 of those (J-FET op-amps?) and a couple of jellybean cmos 14-pin logic chips for support. The rest is all discrete.

Yes, yes, I'm working on a piece of TE in my repair queue, nobody faint or nothing   

[Saskia]

s/celery/habanero/

LOL... substituting that much habanero would make my wife & I both explode. The celery is not just about flavor; it's also about fiber and volume. Low-carb makes such considerations very important.    Asparagus trunks, carrots & broccoli also fill this niche well in the slow-cooker. 

But sure... if you ever make it up here, I'll gladly cook for you. And Sriracha on the table since McIlhenny's is now so passe'. 

mnem
*heeds the urgings of a belly full of warm meal; toddles off to take a nap*

actually we have a subsidiary in Burlington which I had to visit on business twice. It is entirely possible that business takes me there again.
If so I'll make sure to stop by the Bass Pro Outlet at Niagara, probably by the Bass Pro in Vaughn, and a couple of other places.
Is QEW still that clogged ?

[Saskia]

in other news the guy who sold that Nakamichi RX202 did not deliver. He said that he did not know that Paypal would hang on to the funds until the end of the transaction and cancelled it, asking me to purchase again and wire the money.

He has an arab name.
Umm.

No, I'll pass, I have the RX505 and I am not willing to risk it, especially given the age of the tape deck and the potential problems going along with that.

That has the signs of being a scam, you wire him the money and neither him, your money or the RX202 will ever be seen again.

He is less than 50 km away, so he is in range, I just need to program the GPS coordinates ...

No, I am not sending any money.

I always thought I needed a drone that drops bags of excrement.

Nope, I might upscale an onager and load it with 6 tons of pig dung.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Guys, can ask your opinions on what is the best kind of wire stripper? I have a couple very similar to the one shown as some of you will know I have to replace a 8PDT push button switch on a Solartron 7150 plus DMM and I'm struggling with these strippers to make a decent strip on the wires of this meter. It uses a cable, the likes of which I have never come across before. They are single solid cores and very stiff, they oppose almost any attempt to bend them and the insulation sticks to the cores like shit to a blanket. The cores themselves have veins like a leaf embossed in them and the insulation does not want to let go of the core.

I have extremely little room to work as the cables don't have any real slack available and as you can see, they are so stiff, they have to be physically anchored at each end and the main outer sheath is like an insulted armoured cable between the two boards, and there are 2 such cables, the switch itself has 3 of these cables connected to it.

I have been considering rewiring these with a more workable and friendly cable, but if I did, what type of cable should it be or is the cable on these meters dependant on the that type of cable for some reason that I'm not aware of?

So the question is what is the best kind of cable stripper to use and also what are thoughts on the type of cable used in these meters, could another be used without any detriment to meter itself and if so, what cable would you guys use?

Well in good tool matters I take my leads from military standards, if I have not already developed my own ideas. And there the stripmaster respectively it's licensed copies (from Belzer, among others!) are the cat's meow. Whereas the bloody Weidmueller thing should be thrown in the shredder as fast as possible. I never understood how such an awful tool could find such widespread acceptance.
Look at the cut the Stripax performs. It does not sever more than half of the insulation and rips of the remainder. The stripmaster blades, if correctly selected, cut through at least 80% of the insulation and protect the conductor by the free space as opposed to the force-debendent mechanism only. The other alternative which I endorse is the classic german insulation stripper with 2 V-shaped grooves and a adjustment screw. But that adjustment screw must be used or the tool must be handled with really high sensitivity. Erems offer miniature versions of it which are nice to use, Bernstein had one earlier but they seem to have discontinued it. The basic (full size) type is especially useful as insulated versions are available, which allow to work on a live wire.
But a disadvantage of this latter type is that the cutting edges are a fixed part of the tool. So they can't be exchanged and sharpening them is not a trivial undertaking due to the geometry.
Another useful tool are the precision strippers, whose original version was from OK afaik.

[GreyWoolfe]

s/celery/habanero/

LOL... substituting that much habanero would make my wife & I both explode. The celery is not just about flavor; it's also about fiber and volume. Low-carb makes such considerations very important.    Asparagus trunks, carrots & broccoli also fill this niche well in the slow-cooker. 

But sure... if you ever make it up here, I'll gladly cook for you. And Sriracha on the table since McIlhenny's is now so passe'. 

mnem
*heeds the urgings of a belly full of warm meal; toddles off to take a nap*

Thankfully, at my age I still have a cast iron stomach.  Habanero salsa or hot sauce is cheerfully consumed on eggs in the morning.  Then whatever else spicy I can stuff in my craw during the day.  I have to go to the extremes for fiber due to chronic constipation. Regardless on what I eat by way of fibrous veggies, I still have to take 2 tablespoons of Citracel every day.  That in addition of 2 ex-lax tablets a day which keeps me mostly regular and is far more effective and cheaper than the expensive prescriptions that I have tried with less than stellar results.  Sriracha is a long time favorite, McIlhenny's is too bland and only works well in clam chowder. Current favorite is a locally sourced hot sauce made by a friend of Mrs GreyWoolfe who uses Datil peppers.  Outstandingly tasty with a nice kick on the tongue and a pleasant aftertaste. Lots and lots of peppers with little fillers instead of what seems to be the other way around.  Very thick, which I love and it isn't chunky, just thick.  The neat thing is he uses the glass 'hip flasks' that normally contain cheap rotgut that the winos favor.

Saskia, you're the second person that I know of with a celery allergy.  Mrs GreyWoolfe's boss is highly allergic herself.  I find it interesting that such a bland veggie has a compound that affects people.  I will cook with celery but my favorite way of eating it is spreading it with cream cheese mixed with black and green olives.   Mnem, sad to hear you have to cool it on Italian food.  Still one of my favorites to cook.  In fact, this weekend I am planning to make a big pot of my infamous marinara sauce, portioned out and frozen until the urge hits.  It's a slightly different of my dearly departed mom's recipe.  It will come in handy when I have my son and his family over so the grandson can taste what real eggplant parm tastes like since he loves the prepackaged frozen meal.  Some spicy Italia sausage on the side for protein and a nice insalata to go with.

[bd139]

Just got kicked off GTA Online for flying a Learjet into an ongoing drag race. Life is good 

[Neomys Sapiens]

And of course, there are two other GOOD ways to strip a wire:
- thermal wire strippers, like the Weller WST82 (I also have a line-powered one from Kager) But they depend nevertheless on proper care and selection of the blades.
- and those powered wire strippers with rotating blades, but they are very much dependent on proper adjustment

[Neomys Sapiens]

The miniature EREM pliers would be the 510AE, the OK precicision stripper the ST-500ESD

[Mr. Scram]

And of course, there are two other GOOD ways to strip a wire:
- thermal wire strippers, like the Weller WST82 (I also have a line-powered one from Kager) But they depend nevertheless on proper care and selection of the blades.
- and those powered wire strippers with rotating blades, but they are very much dependent on proper adjustment

Thermal strippers are what NASA uses but they're obviously less optimal for silicone leads.

[Saskia]

@Greywoolfe

at work my colleagues munched away at my habanero crisps and popcorn. I will have my vengeance by sneaking in some carolina reapers and Trinidad Scorpions. I don't think they will attack my munchies after that ...

When we do Chili or pasta I conveniently drop 3 habaneros into 2 lbs of meat (along with about 5 spoons of Cayenne pepper). It creates a warm feeling and will kill off any flu germs that may have entered your body.

Celery I cannot have. My body rebels against it, I cannot stand it.

[25 CPS]

s/celery/habanero/

LOL... substituting that much habanero would make my wife & I both explode. The celery is not just about flavor; it's also about fiber and volume. Low-carb makes such considerations very important.    Asparagus trunks, carrots & broccoli also fill this niche well in the slow-cooker. 

But sure... if you ever make it up here, I'll gladly cook for you. And Sriracha on the table since McIlhenny's is now so passe'. 

mnem
*heeds the urgings of a belly full of warm meal; toddles off to take a nap*

actually we have a subsidiary in Burlington which I had to visit on business twice. It is entirely possible that business takes me there again.
If so I'll make sure to stop by the Bass Pro Outlet at Niagara, probably by the Bass Pro in Vaughn, and a couple of other places.
Is QEW still that clogged ?

Yes.  The QEW is pretty much back to pre-pandemic traffic levels.  Highway 2/Lakeshore Rd., Highway 8, and the back roads on top of the Niagara Escarpment (the view in places is not to be missed) and towards Burlington, Highway 5, are the way to go.

[BU508A]

I dunno, some of you guys have no sense of color. All your taste is in your mouth. 

mnem, what do you think of Papa Smurf ?   he's smurflickin' good ...   how can I unsee this ....   

    that wasn't me, FFS...

*Looks up with a pasted-on smile*
Yeah, sure... What can I say...? Item OBVIOUSLY not as described; see this pic from the Auction listing:   

I've tried communicating with the seller, but BU508A doesn't accept returns. Should I open a dispute...? 

mnem
Worst. Scotch-Goggles. EVAR. 

Sorry pal, no guarantee, no returns.
But if we should ever meet in real life, I'll invite you to something like this:



or this one:


or, if you can stand it, this one:


 

[mnementh]

s/celery/habanero/

LOL... substituting that much habanero would make my wife & I both explode. The celery is not just about flavor; it's also about fiber and volume. Low-carb makes such considerations very important.    Asparagus trunks, carrots & broccoli also fill this niche well in the slow-cooker. 

But sure... if you ever make it up here, I'll gladly cook for you. And Sriracha on the table since McIlhenny's is now so passe'. 

mnem
*heeds the urgings of a belly full of warm meal; toddles off to take a nap*

actually we have a subsidiary in Burlington which I had to visit on business twice. It is entirely possible that business takes me there again.
If so I'll make sure to stop by the Bass Pro Outlet at Niagara, probably by the Bass Pro in Vaughn, and a couple of other places.
Is QEW still that clogged ?

Yes.  The QEW is pretty much back to pre-pandemic traffic levels.  Highway 2/Lakeshore Rd., Highway 8, and the back roads on top of the Niagara Escarpment (the view in places is not to be missed) and towards Burlington, Highway 5, are the way to go.

It was pretty heavy on our way up, but we came through at like 16:00, so well into rush-hour traffic. No idea what it's like right now... Welp, now I guess I DO have a idea. 

We avoid going South of 407 unless absolutely necessary, and have managed to not go South of 401 for ANY reason since we got here. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

in other news the guy who sold that Nakamichi RX202 did not deliver. He said that he did not know that Paypal would hang on to the funds until the end of the transaction and cancelled it, asking me to purchase again and wire the money.

He has an arab name.
Umm.

No, I'll pass, I have the RX505 and I am not willing to risk it, especially given the age of the tape deck and the potential problems going along with that.

That has the signs of being a scam, you wire him the money and neither him, your money or the RX202 will ever be seen again.

He is less than 50 km away, so he is in range, I just need to program the GPS coordinates ...

No, I am not sending any money.

I always thought I needed a drone that drops bags of excrement.

in MIRV we trust ...

Suborbital. Crowbar. Launcher. 

mnem
 

[BU508A]

Guys, can ask your opinions on what is the best kind of wire stripper? I have a couple very similar to the one shown as some of you will know I have to replace a 8PDT push button switch on a Solartron 7150 plus DMM and I'm struggling with these strippers to make a decent strip on the wires of this meter. It uses a cable, the likes of which I have never come across before. They are single solid cores and very stiff, they oppose almost any attempt to bend them and the insulation sticks to the cores like shit to a blanket. The cores themselves have veins like a leaf embossed in them and the insulation does not want to let go of the core.

I have extremely little room to work as the cables don't have any real slack available and as you can see, they are so stiff, they have to be physically anchored at each end and the main outer sheath is like an insulted armoured cable between the two boards, and there are 2 such cables, the switch itself has 3 of these cables connected to it.

I have been considering rewiring these with a more workable and friendly cable, but if I did, what type of cable should it be or is the cable on these meters dependant on the that type of cable for some reason that I'm not aware of?

So the question is what is the best kind of cable stripper to use and also what are thoughts on the type of cable used in these meters, could another be used without any detriment to meter itself and if so, what cable would you guys use?

Well in good tool matters I take my leads from military standards, if I have not already developed my own ideas. And there the stripmaster respectively it's licensed copies (from Belzer, among others!) are the cat's meow. Whereas the bloody Weidmueller thing should be thrown in the shredder as fast as possible. I never understood how such an awful tool could find such widespread acceptance.
Look at the cut the Stripax performs. It does not sever more than half of the insulation and rips of the remainder. The stripmaster blades, if correctly selected, cut through at least 80% of the insulation and protect the conductor by the free space as opposed to the force-debendent mechanism only. The other alternative which I endorse is the classic german insulation stripper with 2 V-shaped grooves and a adjustment screw. But that adjustment screw must be used or the tool must be handled with really high sensitivity. Erems offer miniature versions of it which are nice to use, Bernstein had one earlier but they seem to have discontinued it. The basic (full size) type is especially useful as insulated versions are available, which allow to work on a live wire.
But a disadvantage of this latter type is that the cutting edges are a fixed part of the tool. So they can't be exchanged and sharpening them is not a trivial undertaking due to the geometry.
Another useful tool are the precision strippers, whose original version was from OK afaik.

Since more than twenty years I'm having the Knipex 11 02 160 wire stripper:


It serves me well for the usual eletrician stuff. But for the finer wires I'm using my precision sidecutters.
But this Stripmaster sounds interesting. Which model are you referreing to? This one?

[Specmaster]

Well in good tool matters I take my leads from military standards, if I have not already developed my own ideas. And there the stripmaster respectively it's licensed copies (from Belzer, among others!) are the cat's meow. Whereas the bloody Weidmueller thing should be thrown in the shredder as fast as possible. I never understood how such an awful tool could find such widespread acceptance.
Look at the cut the Stripax performs. It does not sever more than half of the insulation and rips of the remainder. The stripmaster blades, if correctly selected, cut through at least 80% of the insulation and protect the conductor by the free space as opposed to the force-debendent mechanism only. The other alternative which I endorse is the classic german insulation stripper with 2 V-shaped grooves and a adjustment screw. But that adjustment screw must be used or the tool must be handled with really high sensitivity. Erems offer miniature versions of it which are nice to use, Bernstein had one earlier but they seem to have discontinued it. The basic (full size) type is especially useful as insulated versions are available, which allow to work on a live wire.
But a disadvantage of this latter type is that the cutting edges are a fixed part of the tool. So they can't be exchanged and sharpening them is not a trivial undertaking due to the geometry.
Another useful tool are the precision strippers, whose original version was from OK afaik.

These are the ones I ended up ordering from Amazon and should be with me tomorrow. I think that these are a clone of the ones you mention and have dedicated blades with cutouts for the cable size, the cable is gripped one side and the other cuts the insulation and then strips it off the end, or if making a tapping along the cable length, creates a gap where a splice can made.

[Neomys Sapiens]

@BU508A:
Basically yes, although mine are of a previous make which have only smooth thin covers over their handles in black (original) or red (Belzer). The crucial thing is to have the right blades for them. I have 4 of them and one is fitted for standard wire from 0.25mm² to 1.5mm², one from 0.75mm² to 4mm², one for thin-walled MIL-W-22759 and one for the thick-walled variety.

[Neomys Sapiens]

@Specmaster: yes, they are very similar indeed. It will be interesting to see whether the blades are fully compatible.

[mnementh]

I dunno, some of you guys have no sense of color. All your taste is in your mouth. 

mnem, what do you think of Papa Smurf ?   he's smurflickin' good ...   how can I unsee this ....   

    that wasn't me, FFS...

*Looks up with a pasted-on smile*
Yeah, sure... What can I say...? Item OBVIOUSLY not as described; see this pic from the Auction listing:   

I've tried communicating with the seller, but BU508A doesn't accept returns. Should I open a dispute...? 

mnem
Worst. Scotch-Goggles. EVAR. 

Sorry pal, no guarantee, no returns.
But if we should ever meet in real life, I'll invite you to something like this:      or this one:      or, if you can stand it, this one:   

 

LOL... Not sure if gargling all of those will make the smurf-uhhh whatever taste go away... we really should investigate, for the sake of science...

Fair deal, sez I.

mnem
All 3 at once MIGHT get you as spun as ONE batshit-crazy redhead...

[mnementh]

...But this Stripmaster sounds interesting. Which model are you referreing to? This one?   

Those are the automatic ones I was talking about earlier; get 'em tweaked right and they're fukkin' magic. Have had them several times. Worth every penny, but keep them in your hands or in a locked box. They WILL grow legs if you don't watch 'em like a hawk.

mnem