Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

Lowballing (like, really) my way towards a 6205c. Finally found one that does not want 2x the asking price in shipping. Let's see where this ends.

Obligatory note: That Gossen Metrahit I got is still sooooo sexy.

[med6753]

Well, seeing as New Jersey is legendary for shitty roads, can’t totally blame the guy for not wanting to spend money on the toll road. 

About the last thing I did the first time visiting USA was to drive from staying at friends of friends of friends somewhere in NJ, to a train station to get into Manhattan by train, and then find our way back to EWR car rental.  We got completely lost, but managed. (this was in '93, so satnav was something for B52's. We were driving by the free highway administration maps they hand out in the visitor centre as you enter a new state)

Those potholes. Damn.  Damn.

You are lucky you didn't get car jacked in Newark. 

[nfmax]

A reminder for those of us in BST/GMT land (and probably all the EU countries on the same coordinated cycle for summer time changes), today's one of the days you need to reset your forum profile if you want to see the right time on messages.

I raise a toast to the complete, utter, boundless incompetence of the general PHP devloper (sic) collective.

Hell, getting timezones right is hard even in proper programming languages. So how can we expect people that willingly adapt a tool set that requires a full frontal lobotomy to cope with it?

Gah I'd forgotten to apply that change to the world of hell I'm going to enter tomorrow. Is it going to be collapsed appointment schedules, unit test suites pissing errors, log offsets being completely fucked up or will replication just fail suddenly somewhere. Perhaps I should go sick 

Some years ago, I was given a test data set to evaluate, to identify some 'events' supposedly contained within it. A few days worth of a few thousand measurements at 30 second or so intervals. It contained time stamps, but no indication of the TZ used, or if daylight savings had been applied. Knowing this was apparently Against The Rules (this was a competitive evaluation). But the data set included ambient temperature, and I did know the approximate location of the test site. So I Google-mapped the nearest airport, checked it was close enough, and downloaded the historical met data for the appropriate period. A quick bit of correlation of the two temperatures resolved the time zone...

Also, data analyists who have been around long enough never really trust data from the first twelve days of any month

[bd139]

Sneaky outcome. Shows you knew what you’re doing which is lacking these days generally.

Well I was right. Walked into the (virtual) office right into an incident  . I don’t start quite yet so I’m eating breakfast before I start pretending to give a fuck 

[tggzzz]

Now what was the original problem?

Windows. You've got to be clever to use Windows.

Nah just good at Googling

Doesn't that bring up the old joke about a software package stating it requies "Win98 or better", so you try installing it on Linux?

[tggzzz]

Oh well, at least you didn't knock any teeth loose, metaphorically speaking. My fear for anything with a CRT in that takes a big knock is that something gets mechanically displaced inside the tube, or the heater element snaps.

I had a CRT that was doing an perfectly usable impersonation of a torch. Eventually, after learning a lot aboutCRT electronics, I found the grid was disconnected. I don't see how this could have been done with simple mechanical shock.

[Zucca]

You probably will need v4 "connectivity" (in quotes because NAT is not more than a mockery of connectivity, compared to the real deal) for at least 15 years. The interesting phase is when v4 address space, which costs a lot to get (the free supply is out, so there is a second hand market) today will go down in price. Then, we're really in legacy mode. Today there is still way too much v4-only infrastructure on the net. Like Eevblog...

Sorry, I have a little stone in my shoe to take out:
... which means if right now I would have only IPv6 I could not reach Eevblog because it is IPv4 only??
Viceversa I am now 100% IPV4 so I am missing today all the website/server on IPV6?

[bd139]

Now what was the original problem?

Windows. You've got to be clever to use Windows.

Nah just good at Googling

Doesn't that bring up the old joke about a software package stating it requies "Win98 or better", so you try installing it on Linux?

Well that’s a fair resolution route 

[med6753]

Sneaky outcome. Shows you knew what you’re doing which is lacking these days generally.

Well I was right. Walked into the (virtual) office right into an incident  . I don’t start quite yet so I’m eating breakfast before I start pretending to give a fuck 

Well, if the office is "virtual" doesn't that also make the issue "virtual" which means it can be solved by simply pressing the delete key? 

[Specmaster]

Almost all of our highway toll booths have cash lanes and cashless lanes. The cashless lanes read a transducer attached to your windshield and debt your account. Now if you happen to go through a cashless lane and you don't have a transducer or it can't read it then it will take a pix of your license plate and send you a bill in the mail.

Getting on the NJ Turnpike today. Going through the cashless toll booth. In front of me is a dickhead in a Jeep Gran Cherokee that has one of these. I see it come down and cover his plate just before entering the booth. Then opens once through it. I never knew these existed but here it is available for sale with the ruse that it's for car meets , etc. Bullshit. 

   

Over here people are using 3D number plates to confuse such cameras and there also some number plates that reflect so much light from the camera flash that the camera cannot read the registration plate at all.

[bd139]

Sneaky outcome. Shows you knew what you’re doing which is lacking these days generally.

Well I was right. Walked into the (virtual) office right into an incident  . I don’t start quite yet so I’m eating breakfast before I start pretending to give a fuck 

Well, if the office is "virtual" doesn't that also make the issue "virtual" which means it can be solved by simply pressing the delete key? 

That's what I did. Unfortunately the latency between when I pressed the delete key and when it blinks out of existence is 3 months 

[Specmaster]

Well, seeing as New Jersey is legendary for shitty roads, can’t totally blame the guy for not wanting to spend money on the toll road. 

It's not just the roads. Everything is shitty in Jersey. Literally. Driving that section of the Jersey Turnpike is a smellothon. There are stinky chemical plants plus the "Meadowlands" which is inland salt water mudflats which at low tide absolutely smell like someone in the car ripped a greasy fart. I mean bad. Almost makes you want to puke. 

The worst farts of all are the SBD's 

[Robert763]

Oh well, at least you didn't knock any teeth loose, metaphorically speaking. My fear for anything with a CRT in that takes a big knock is that something gets mechanically displaced inside the tube, or the heater element snaps.

I had a CRT that was doing an perfectly usable impersonation of a torch. Eventually, after learning a lot aboutCRT electronics, I found the grid was disconnected. I don't see how this could have been done with simple mechanical shock.

Probably vibration induced metal fatige of the weld or a bad weld in the first place. If somthing ecxired the tube at the resonant frequency of the grig connection it could fatigue quite easily.
I had a case of AD595 thermocouple ICs in DIL ceramic packages located in a "very" high noise environment failing. For all of then the feedback pin ( went open circuit. I de-capped one and the bond wire had dropped off. IIRC it was significantly different in length to the other bond wires. I assumed it or the package was resonat at one of the noise frequencies. Cure was to put a big blob of RTV silicone on each package to de-tune and damp it.  Got no more failures.

[mansaxel]

You probably will need v4 "connectivity" (in quotes because NAT is not more than a mockery of connectivity, compared to the real deal) for at least 15 years. The interesting phase is when v4 address space, which costs a lot to get (the free supply is out, so there is a second hand market) today will go down in price. Then, we're really in legacy mode. Today there is still way too much v4-only infrastructure on the net. Like Eevblog...

Sorry, I have a little stone in my shoe to take out:
... which means if right now I would have only IPv6 I could not reach Eevblog because it is IPv4 only??
Viceversa I am now 100% IPV4 so I am missing today all the website/server on IPV6?

If you had only IPv6 (without a carrier NAT or similar) yes, then that would be the case.

If you had v6 plus NATted v4, you'd do better.

The latter is -- for reasons of backwards compatibility -- the most common case where there's v6 today.

If you (which is quite more common) are on v4 only, yes, you're missing out on the v6 Internet.

We're running a Hurricane Electric tunnel for v6 at home. It sucks more these days, because low-cost ip geolocation services for that prefix block now thinks we're in Russia. Google gets it right, though. Supposedly they've got enough internal data to determine that themselves.

I've got a Swedish /49 routed over my two tunnels, so will try fixing that soon. However, getting change management approval at home is a pain.

[tggzzz]

Oh well, at least you didn't knock any teeth loose, metaphorically speaking. My fear for anything with a CRT in that takes a big knock is that something gets mechanically displaced inside the tube, or the heater element snaps.

I had a CRT that was doing an perfectly usable impersonation of a torch. Eventually, after learning a lot aboutCRT electronics, I found the grid was disconnected. I don't see how this could have been done with simple mechanical shock.

Probably vibration induced metal fatige of the weld or a bad weld in the first place. If somthing ecxired the tube at the resonant frequency of the grig connection it could fatigue quite easily.
I had a case of AD595 thermocouple ICs in DIL ceramic packages located in a "very" high noise environment failing. For all of then the feedback pin ( went open circuit. I de-capped one and the bond wire had dropped off. IIRC it was significantly different in length to the other bond wires. I assumed it or the package was resonat at one of the noise frequencies. Cure was to put a big blob of RTV silicone on each package to de-tune and damp it.  Got no more failures.

Since the 465 scope was otherwise in good working order, I presume it was just a poor weld.

[Zucca]

Thanks Mansa, my spider senses were right. I am missing the V6 Internet at home right now.
Another TODO in my list, getting a tunnel V6 in my IPV4 pfSense. I like the idea.

hollyyyy molly  I need maybe to setup IPV6 everywhere in my home networks...., firewall rules, ubound oh. I hope it is not a Pandora vase.

EDIT: Very very interesting

https://www.google.com/ipv6/statistics.html#tab=ipv6-adoption

https://www.google.com/ipv6/statistics.html#tab=per-country-ipv6-adoption

[mnementh]

Sneaky outcome. Shows you knew what you’re doing which is lacking these days generally.

Well I was right. Walked into the (virtual) office right into an incident  . I don’t start quite yet so I’m eating breakfast before I start pretending to give a fuck 

Do you actually expect that to happen anytime today...? 

mnem
"...and tomorrow's not looking good either..."

[mnementh]

Oh well, at least you didn't knock any teeth loose, metaphorically speaking. My fear for anything with a CRT in that takes a big knock is that something gets mechanically displaced inside the tube, or the heater element snaps.

   I had a CRT that was doing an perfectly usable impersonation of a torch. Eventually, after learning a lot aboutCRT electronics, I found the grid was disconnected. I don't see how this could have been done with simple mechanical shock.

I dunno... I'm seeing what looks like fractures at these pin seals in the base which tend to support the excessive G-forces explanation. 

OTOH, while burn-in testing does catch most infant mortality cases, adolescent mortality cases do occur. They just fall outside the bell is all. 

I think I just got very, very lucky in that regard; Well, and the fact the CRT in this one is really just a high-res monochrome monitor, which was produced at the pinnacle of such manufacturing technology, so probably about as durable as they were ever made. If it were a proper scope CRT with plates, etc... I'm pretty sure I'd still be crying into my coffee.   

mnem

[bd139]

Mmmm z80 computer fun

melted backup battery.



charcoal capacitor!



Cleaned it up and it's running which is good 

[Brumby]

Sneaky outcome. Shows you knew what you’re doing which is lacking these days generally.

Well I was right. Walked into the (virtual) office right into an incident  . I don’t start quite yet so I’m eating breakfast before I start pretending to give a fuck 

Well, if the office is "virtual" doesn't that also make the issue "virtual" which means it can be solved by simply pressing the delete key? 

That's what I did. Unfortunately the latency between when I pressed the delete key and when it blinks out of existence is 3 months 

Might the Esc key be an option?   

[Specmaster]

Oh yuk, nice fuse, diodes are playing hide-and-seek. Good job thats not a high impedance circuit there

[bd139]

Oh yuk, nice fuse, diodes are playing hide-and-seek. Good job thats not a high impedance circuit there

Yeah it was pretty rough. Both boards are up and clocking the CPU now. Just need to add a soul to the machines.

[Specmaster]

Gah, the meter movement on the Avo is knackered so this meter is going to become a parts mule and hopefully I'll come across another model 8 MK5 at a suitable price to make a good meter out of two, so for now its going into the repair queue.

[bd139]

Gah that's a shame.

I've noticed that a lot recently. The glut of decent and not buggered stuff is over. It's heading in the direction of all buggered 

[tggzzz]

Gah, the meter movement on the Avo is knackered so this meter is going to become a parts mule and hopefully I'll come across another model 8 MK5 at a suitable price to make a good meter out of two, so for now its going into the repair queue.

10 off Avo8s in next week's Ramco auction. https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/timed/ramco/catalogue-id-ramco-10248?searchTerm=avometer