Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Ahha. Close! 

[bd139]

I've got one of the old aluminium G5 PowerMacs and two Xeon based ones. I had been vaguely considering using two (probably the Xeons) as combined coffee table legs/blow heaters. The Xeons still have enough grunt (and memory) to be still useful, if power inefficient in current day terms. One of the Xeons still serves as an occasional desktop machine for when I need to run old 32 bit code, such as the perpetual, non-cloud versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, the other currently has VMWare on it but is kept powered off.

That's the real killer these days on old kit. Unlike a lot of EE kit where physics hasn't changed much, computing is completely different. As much as I'd love to have a 42U rack full of old whirring kit, I can get ALL of it inside a single Ryzen box with a 105W TDP that is silent and much faster 

Earlier when I was playing with Collapse OS, I was sitting on the sofa on my laptop with PuTTY open to a VM on the desktop. The same desktop has a 4 node kubernetes cluster with about 50 pods deployed on it and a fairly hefty SQL Server instance with 1000 or so tables in it. I dread to imagine the noise and electricity bill this would have generated even 10 years ago.

[Specmaster]

For the 519?

Umm....no. I don't have a 519. Oculus has the 519.

Ok then, how about the 7603N?

Congratulations. You were paying attention. 

Yep, the 519 was a red herring  I do try to keep current with your projects.

[Saskia]

 
what a friggin' day.

Good news: my translation system is back among the living, Upgrades done need to adjust some minor settings for redis, but that should be somewhat straightforward. rabbitmq, mongodb, nodejs, erlang, elasticsearch ... upgraded to LTS versions, currently only about 400 containers running on it, but all models are at the latest versions. Stuff left to do: switch to x.509 authentication for mongodb to get it reasonably safe.
Elasticsearch gave me some headaches. As it is only used as a small plugin I never gave it much thought.
Until the new 7.9.2 behaved completely different than the old version which made me just pile single instances together and form a cluster.
Problem there: I needed a load balancer configuration for that, in that particular case add a single additional port to an already existing config.
And for that had to submit a change request (ok, I can live with that) and explain to a change advisory board why I wanted to do this, why this was somewhat urgent and why this needed to be done in CoVid times ...

Non technical managers discussing the necessity of a necessary technical change ...
*sigh*. Anyway. It's working now.

As for the Apple table: if it's not flat and you have a belt sander: sand it down and make it flat. What can possibly go wrong ?

As for those kids life stories: my fucktard parents were similar to those described, only worse. May they rot alive.


On a positive note: my replacement hard drive for a DOA Toshiba 8TB will be arriving tomorrow. 3 days turn around is not that bad (counting in the parcel service).
This is the toshiba warranty handler in Germany (Storrepair)

Still waiting for an answer from WD regarding a RED PRO NAS drive. Does not finish SMART test, is stuck at 90%, however is recognized by the NAS. I am waiting for their support to authorize an RMA ...

[bd139]

Congratulations. Elasticsearch is a shit show. I'm surprised it didn't try and murder you some more

As for the belt sander, I like the idea.

[Cerebus]

I've got one of the old aluminium G5 PowerMacs and two Xeon based ones. I had been vaguely considering using two (probably the Xeons) as combined coffee table legs/blow heaters. The Xeons still have enough grunt (and memory) to be still useful, if power inefficient in current day terms. One of the Xeons still serves as an occasional desktop machine for when I need to run old 32 bit code, such as the perpetual, non-cloud versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, the other currently has VMWare on it but is kept powered off.

That's the real killer these days on old kit. Unlike a lot of EE kit where physics hasn't changed much, computing is completely different. As much as I'd love to have a 42U rack full of old whirring kit, I can get ALL of it inside a single Ryzen box with a 105W TDP that is silent and much faster 

Earlier when I was playing with Collapse OS, I was sitting on the sofa on my laptop with PuTTY open to a VM on the desktop. The same desktop has a 4 node kubernetes cluster with about 50 pods deployed on it and a fairly hefty SQL Server instance with 1000 or so tables in it. I dread to imagine the noise and electricity bill this would have generated even 10 years ago.

My laptop has 3 times as many cores as one of those MacPros (2 x dual core), and each core has more grunt. The MacPro idles at 90W odd and uses ~200W running a couple of VMs under VMWare. The laptop gets though everyday tasks (including feeding a 5K screen) with passive cooling. The ProLiant ML310e Gen8 that's taken over from the MacPro for VMWare purposes runs vCenter (a hog) and several VMs using less power than the MacPro does at idle.

[bd139]

I really need to measure the idle power on this kit as well. It should sit around 60W.

Really for what it’s doing most of the time if I set my expectations lower I can probably get away with the ryzen laptop and a DigitalOcean $5/month and fire up a faster node if I need it.

[Wolfgang]

All righty then... Today was a crappy day for the ol' TinkerDwagon; I've murdered my 54645A. Well, my clumsy fat ass did, anyways...     ...I had pulled out the cart it was sitting on to get a tool that fell off my bench behind it and just backed right into it, knocking it off onto the floor...

mnem

Well isn't that a pain in the scaly dwagon @ss.  When I made my scrap wood scope cart, I had a flexible rubber band with hooks on it similar to a bungee cord.  Had 2 scopes stacked for fun and they wouldn't move for anything.  Glad I found that in the garage whilst prowling for the scrap wood.

   Yeah, I have nobody to blame but myself for that one.

If I'd stopped to flip the bail up so it rests on all 4 rubber feet, never woulda happened. Sitting flat the thing is like it's glued to the top of my cart, which is actually a Ikea Alex rolly drawer unit. Yeah, I know... not the BEST choice but in my defense, it works well with my usual workflow as all the leads & accessories are in the drawers right there.

So now, a change in SOP... I leave it lying flat UNLESS I'm using it. When I'm done using it, I lay it flat again, no exceptions. I got used to leaving a probe coiled up in the space under the bail; now I'm paying the price for my laziness.

mnem

Mnem,

would'nt your broken plastic panel be a great job for your 3D printer ? 

[mnementh]

Not with my Fusion-Fu it wouldn't; even if my 3DP were big enough. 

mnem
 

[25 CPS]

On a happier note, I do have a new score in the back of the truck hidden beneath one of my football uniforms as is my customary practice to prevent anyone looking for a smash and grab opportunity from seeing anything that might look interesting.



And an open box item that I ordered has arrived (not an Amazon purchase, the person packaged it up for shipment in a reused Amazon box).



I’ll be unpacking that later and checking it out when work quiet end down a bit.

[Specmaster]

Not with my Fusion-Fu it wouldn't; even if my 3DP were big enough. 

mnem
 

Now that is where and when 3DP would really come of age, especially if the actual finish quality could match that of the original panel.

[Specmaster]

On a happier note, I do have a new score in the back of the truck hidden beneath one of my football uniforms as is my customary practice to prevent anyone looking for a smash and grab opportunity from seeing anything that might look interesting.



And an open box item that I ordered has arrived (not an Amazon purchase, the person packaged it up for shipment in a reused Amazon box).



I’ll be unpacking that later and checking it out when work quiet end down a bit.

Personally I'd have thought that the football kit might be more an attraction to the average John Doe, no?

[Saskia]

they stole my down jacket (pre year 2000) out of the rental car I had in Ontario (Burlington) something like 4 years ago.
Which indeed was a smash and grab job.

When I went to the police (had to for the insurance and the damage to the rental car) those Mounties charged me another 55 bucks for the police report. 

That's one of the few places where police will rip off a crime victim ...

[25 CPS]

Personally I'd have thought that the football kit might be more an attraction to the average John Doe, no?

Sports equipment, especially non-hockey sports equipment in Canada doesn't attract any attention at all.  Electronics on the other hand, especially something like that power supply with the row of knobs and the meters and the two big rack handles, that's something that's got to be worth a few bucks at a sleazy pawn shop, right?

Even if someone was to break the rear window and try to lift that power supply out and discover that it's way too heavy to make a clean getaway with and leave it there, I'd still be stuck dealing with a broken window.  I'd rather anybody looking in vehicles in the parking garage down the street from work see my football gear and think "next!" and move on.

[25 CPS]

they stole my down jacket (pre year 2000) out of the rental car I had in Ontario (Burlington) something like 4 years ago.
Which indeed was a smash and grab job.

When I went to the police (had to for the insurance and the damage to the rental car) those Mounties charged me another 55 bucks for the police report. 

That's one of the few places where police will rip off a crime victim ...

That sounds about right.

My minivan was stolen about three years ago.  Actually, I just checked, it was three years ago today.  Anyhow, the thieves dumped the contents the decided not to keep out in a parking lot in Burlington.  That kicked off a long process to replace the things that were stolen out of the van, replace the van itself because it was old and the thieves did a number on the transmission, and a month afterwards when I thought I had everything done and sorted out, a bill showed up for $12 worth of use on the 407 toll highway the night the thieves had the thing.  I could have gotten the bill waived except it required getting the police report then appealing the charges with all the time and headache involved with that so I decided for the $12 worth of driving they did to just pay it and get rid of it and be done with the 407 bill.

[Specmaster]

That surprises me, wouldn't have thought that many people would even be aware what it is.

[Saskia]

thinking about it Burlington certainly seems to be a pretty shit show to be while in Ontario.

[25 CPS]

That surprises me, wouldn't have thought that many people would even be aware what it is.

It doesn't matter.  Even if they don't know what it is, it looks big, it looks impressive, it looks like it might be worth stealing and that's all it would take.

In fact, I deliberately made sure that power supply isn't visible from my SUV's windows.  No thief looking in car windows in the parking garage near work is going to look at that and think about vintage Hewlett Packard power supplies, they're going to see the rack mount handles and the two meters that at first glance look like VUs and think they're one broken window away from lifting a big stereo amplifier.

[bd139]

If anyone wants a laugh, hit this video:

[Cerebus]

Hmm, ~2000 kg of lead acid batteries before he's put any vehicle around it. That's more than my 1320kg two seater petrol car weighs in total (GVW). I think he'll be struggling to get it under the 3500kg GVW that most people's licences allow them, unless they've got a C1 category license like me (up to 7500kg).

Edit: I could only bear the first bit, when he got to his two tonne battery pack, so if there's more lunacy I'm afraid I missed it.

[bd139]

It’s basically a scam to sell milk floats.

[Cerebus]

Well, most people nowadays aren't familiar with watching those racing along the streets at 5 mph as they stumble home from a proper night out.

[vk6zgo]

Dude to you too, its simples, stack it up on top then and not in front, after all with the thing laying flat, stuff is not likely to slide/roll off is it?

Also, wouldn't help a damned bit. I'd then have that meter, that mug, my drill-driver, a pile of assorted capacitors, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir playing "chess" with the Dallas Cheerleaders, a dismantled Volkswagen and half a bong stacked all on top AND in front of my 54645A. 

mnem
Self-restraint sometimes requires physical restraints.

Years ago, an old mate of mine drove a Standard Vanguard van.(anybody ancient enough to remember those tough old beasts?)
Someone asked him "Syd, do you have an OC45 transistor in your spare stuff?"

"Hang on", says he, & opened up the back of the van.
Somewhere, under the spare full Vanguard rear axle, several battery chargers, a big pile of random cable, old radios, loose vacuum tubes, etc, he unearthed the requested germanium transistor.

Re: the 'scope trolley---wish I had one, the 7613 takes up so much real estate on the bench.
I was thinking about one of the Ikea trolleys, too, or the ones that the car accessory places sell, although the latter are a bit costly, & look a bit heavy.

Almost as long ago, as the "Vanguard" incident, at work, we had two trolleys---- the 545B sat solidly on its one, without any restraints needed, but the 7000 series was strapped down.

From memory, we had transferred the 545B to the trolley the 524AD used to use, then put the 7000 series on the trolley the former vacated, as the older one didn't have provision for hold down straps.
The 7000 series looked "like a pimple on a pumpkin" on the big trolley.

We had a couple of "in house" manufactured trolleys for other stuff, but they were a lot heavier than the Tek ones, & a bit "clunky".

[mnementh]

On the bench tonight... 100% homebrew. How could I resist for ~US$11.59?

First guess... monoblock amplifier project.

            

Mmmmhmmmm... looks like some 1980s "Back of Nuts & Volts" all-silicon DIY amplifier kittery here... A little u-build-it single-sided preamp board driving a 2SD313, which in turn is driving paralled pairs of genuine Moldy-rollah MJ15003s and MJ15004s (140V/20A/250W) in MCP. A premade speaker protection board imported from Hong Kong provides peace of mind; well-done.  Theoretical max well over 300W... probably legit 150-200W given 40-50V rails as indicated by the caps.

Those Mallory CGS-series are tasty too; one of the few product lines I would actually actually bother to test and not fuck with (if tested good) even at 30-40 years old. In fact, builder went good name brand with everything... Rubycon, Sanken, Mallory, Motorola... but mediocre soldering at best. Think s/he tried to do everything with a 30W Radio Shank firestarter.

Too bad it all smells like moldy old toolshed now. 

Maybe I'm horrible for saying this... but what I really wanna do with this is gut it and use the power section to make a nice big linear CV/CC bench supply.

mnem
*heartless*

[mnementh]

Not with my Fusion-Fu it wouldn't; even if my 3DP were big enough. 

mnem
 

Now that is where and when 3DP would really come of age, especially if the actual finish quality could match that of the original panel.

Oh, it exists... and HP makes it. Turnkey systems starting at only $0.25M... 

mnem
Perhaps not cost-effective...