Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

And Now for Something That is Actually... Constructive...?

That's right... I'm painting unicorn butts. You may now point and laugh. 

Seriously... it was what I had handy for trying out this cheap dollar-store acrylic paint and trying to make a serviceable detail brush from some dollar-store cheapies; I couldn't bring myself to spend $40 on no-name paints & brushes from Amazon just to do a couple of DeadPool figures.

mnem
*remembering when you could buy a kit of Testors Enamels for $7; and it came with thinner and a couple brushes*

Yeah the paint is damn expensive. Fluffy the unicorn set me back about £20 in paints 

There’s something about painting unicorn butts 

[mnementh]

I know... right? 

Could be worse... I could be licking unicorn butts.   

mnem
*slurrrrrrrp*

[BU508A]

How to sub transistors like a pro:

2N1132   -> fuck it BD139 BD140 will do

2N1711  -> fuck it BD139 will do.

 

Fixed that for you. 

[BU508A]

@Zucca, PA0PBZ and the others:   my pleasure!   

Those naughty little thingies sneaked in somehow. I guess, they are kind of being up and running and that's perhaps the reason for R&S to mark them with a red dot.      Glad, that you've enjoyed it.

"being up & running"...?

I know it's just a lost in translation thing... but now I need to know more. 

mnem
 

Saskia will shout at me, because I did it again.   

Wanted to translate "unternehmungslustig sein" and gurgle translation gave me "be up and running"

see attached screenshot

Edit:
Bill Murray would be proud of me. Maybe.   

[bd139]

How to sub transistors like a pro:

2N1132   -> fuck it BD139 BD140 will do

2N1711  -> fuck it BD139 will do.

 

Fixed that for you. 

Bugger it. Thought I had put bd140 down for first one. I looked at it and though 2n2905A first but then decided bd140 and wrote bd139. Apparently, I suck! 

[BU508A]

How to sub transistors like a pro:

2N1132   -> fuck it BD139 BD140 will do

2N1711  -> fuck it BD139 will do.

 

Fixed that for you. 

Bugger it. Thought I had put bd140 down for first one. I looked at it and though 2n2905A first but then decided bd140 and wrote bd139. Apparently, I suck! 

No worries. Looks like, that your administrative job(s) are very demanding. 

[bd139]

Ah not that kind of admin. Personal stuff (tax and accounts). So far I'm being employed to do bugger all. This is unfortunately rotting my brain I think  . On a positive (I think) note they're sending me a spare laptop that has been freed up next week so I'll be able to do something. And the first thing is going to be induction training courses on ethics, bribery, GDPR and compliance! 

[Specmaster]

Nope. On mine "Call Details" just shows the time of call and whether incoming or outgoing. It's fucking infuriating; you used to get all this info in your call history scroll by default, and that has been normal for decades. I can see allowing the morons to turn that off; but to just take it away completely is fucking idiotic.

EDIT: Oh, wait... I see now. They do offer that info on calls to/from a number in my contacts. But NOT for any other numbers. 

Have they restructured all this shit so it's part of your Contacts database...? That would explain why I have to assign a a special notification tone to every CONTACT instead of being able to assign it just to SMS MESSAGING like I used to be able to do...

This is beginning to smell like another aspect of  of their "your private Contacts list is our content" bullshit, where Contacts doesn't work right unless you're logged into Google services...

mnem
 

I suggest you have a good play with your phone settings and experiment a bit with the various options in particular with your phone app. I attach screen prints of my phone which is a Huawei P Smart 2019 and is running Android 10 and as you can see I can see all details to do with a call even if it is not a contact that I have saved in contacts database.

[dl6lr]

And the first thing is going to be induction training courses on ethics, bribery, GDPR and compliance! 

I use to inject some faulty stuff into boring trainings and wait for someone to recognize it Normally no one complains... The accompanying documents are correct of course.

Today (and the half of yesterday) I was analysing about 5Gig of log files. One of the colleagues "thought" he could see "some anomalies" in the system and grabbed all that stuff, reporting to upper management *BEFORE* analysing data. You do not need enemies then...

[doktor pyta]

anyone from the U.S. ?
The seller doesn't want to ship abroad.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/313305294079

[Saskia]

got a new phone today and was busy transferring the config from my old one when the Pixel XL battery decided it had had it and called it seppuku time. Tried to configure the new phone (pixel 2 xl) when vodafone decided to kill my fritzbox (ppoe timeout, power cycle did not revive it. Reset to factory defaults did ...
cost me 2 hours of my life.
Not happy.

[Specmaster]

got a new phone today and was busy transferring the config from my old one when the Pixel XL battery decided it had had it and called it seppuku time. Tried to configure the new phone (pixel 2 xl) when vodafone decided to kill my fritzbox (ppoe timeout, power cycle did not revive it. Reset to factory defaults did ...
cost me 2 hours of my life.
Not happy.

You seem to be almost permanently "Not Happy" these days, life sucks sometimes, but overall it balances things out, think positive thoughts, thats my motto.

[mnementh]

I think that maybe... just where our most personal of personal confusers are concerned... maybe we both need to drink the iPwn Kool-Aid.

It's not like they suck any more of your personal info than Googs... and sometimes, shit actually works. 

mnem
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

On other notes:

today I've sniped ten of these LT 1031CCH, also known as LH0070
That are 10V voltage references. Pity, it is the C-version with 15ppm drift. The B-version has a drift of 5ppm.


for seven Euro/piece.

Even AliExpress is more expensive 


Edit:
added the datasheet

Even more pity about the other 'C' in the designation. Would have gladly taken BMHs as well as DMHs off your hands.

[mnementh]

Nope. On mine "Call Details" just shows the time of call and whether incoming or outgoing. It's fucking infuriating; you used to get all this info in your call history scroll by default, and that has been normal for decades. I can see allowing the morons to turn that off; but to just take it away completely is fucking idiotic.

EDIT: Oh, wait... I see now. They do offer that info on calls to/from a number in my contacts. But NOT for any other numbers. 

Have they restructured all this shit so it's part of your Contacts database...? That would explain why I have to assign a a special notification tone to every CONTACT instead of being able to assign it just to SMS MESSAGING like I used to be able to do...

This is beginning to smell like another aspect of  of their "your private Contacts list is our content" bullshit, where Contacts doesn't work right unless you're logged into Google services...

mnem
 

I suggest you have a good play with your phone settings and experiment a bit with the various options in particular with your phone app. I attach screen prints of my phone which is a Huawei P Smart 2019 and is running Android 10 and as you can see I can see all details to do with a call even if it is not a contact that I have saved in contacts database.

Great... so you CAN fix it, if you drill down deep enough to unfuckerize something that never should have been fucked with in the first place.  Or possibly your pwn, which came with Android9, is not 100% Android10 as is often the case with OTA and vendor-installed updates. Great... more effing rabbit-holes.

Like I don't have enough misery on my plate already... I need to outwit my smartPwn again, just to recover basic functionality...

mnem
Please excuse me... I need to toddle off and lick something now...

[SilverSolder]

got a new phone today and was busy transferring the config from my old one when the Pixel XL battery decided it had had it and called it seppuku time. Tried to configure the new phone (pixel 2 xl) when vodafone decided to kill my fritzbox (ppoe timeout, power cycle did not revive it. Reset to factory defaults did ...
cost me 2 hours of my life.
Not happy.

You seem to be almost permanently "Not Happy" these days, life sucks sometimes, but overall it balances things out, think positive thoughts, thats my motto.

Having a pint with some friends helps too! 

[mansaxel]

got a new phone today and was busy transferring the config from my old one when the Pixel XL battery decided it had had it and called it seppuku time. Tried to configure the new phone (pixel 2 xl) when vodafone decided to kill my fritzbox (ppoe timeout, power cycle did not revive it. Reset to factory defaults did ...
cost me 2 hours of my life.
Not happy.

You and me both. This weekend I was wiring in some more circuits in the machine room, feeding the water cooling fans, solenoids and pumps more permanently, and also adding a branch to my 1:1 mains isolation transformer. I managed to discover that

• My UPS batteries need swapping. They die if the double-PSU computers, routers and switches lose their bypass feed (All dual-PSU machines have one PSU on UPS and one direct) and the UPS can't keep up. It also does not help that I've got too many machines running since I'm trying to migrate to a 10G switch and also remove the old router by configuring the new switch to route as well, together with a very drawn-out process to replace my colo machine with a new one.
• The damn RCCB test switch has a hair trigger! Second outage was killing all power by accidentally pushing the test button while working in the live fuse box.

The first outage did not reboot the present router, but I believe that the fiber CPE glitched enough to wedge the DHCP assignments and I had no outside IP address for some time. And consequently no tunnels (through which I get my real addresses routed) could go up.

The second outage unglitched it all, so it can best be described as mixed blessing. Then perhaps from all mangling with on/off switching et c, the solenoid valve in the water cooler stuck closed, so no circulation was possible. This might have damaged the circulation pump. I'll find out in spring. For now, I'm draining the system, which I'd planned to do anyway, to fit an expansion vessel and replace the pure water with water/alcohol mix to stop freezing if I have a circulation stopping outage. Also, when I've drained that, I can and should drain the pool to winter levels to prevent valves and filter from freezing, which can be expensive.

[BU508A]

Even more pity about the other 'C' in the designation. Would have gladly taken BMHs as well as DMHs off your hands.

Good luck with that. Arrow has the LT1031BMH in stock for the bargain price of ca. 82.- Euro per piece. 
https://www.arrow.com/en/products/lt1031bmh/analog-devices

Btw, do you really need the enhanced temp. range of the M-models?

[mnementh]

@Zucca, PA0PBZ and the others:

my pleasure!   

Those naughty little thingies sneaked in somehow. I guess, they are kind of being up and running adventurous¹
and that's perhaps the reason for R&S to mark them with a red dot.   

Glad, that you've enjoyed it.

Edit:
¹ is that any better? @mnem

Yes, thank you... now I actually have half a clue! 

I was thinking some variant of "hot sale item" or "reduced for quick sale"; as if R&S had sneaked them into your order without any encouragement on your part at all.

mnem
"Honest honey... I went to Home Despot for a box of deck screws... that cordless drill/saw/impact/other saw/flashlight/air compressor/boom box kit just jumped in my trunk all by itself!!!"

[mnementh]

How to sub transistors like a pro:

2N1132   -> fuck it BD139 BD140 will do

2N1711  -> fuck it BD139 will do.

 

Just let bd139 fuck it. Whatever it is. Then they'll both be happy. 

mnem
 

Fixed that for you. 

Bugger it. Thought I had put bd140 down for first one. I looked at it and though 2n2905A first but then decided bd140 and wrote bd139. Apparently, I suck! 

No, you fucked it... just as I suggested. 

mnem

[andy3055]

Decided to check the compensation on the Tek 465B. Months ago after I completed all the repairs I basically just did some quick waveform checks and called it good. So today more extensive testing.

Channel 1 was OK. No adjustments needed. Channel 2 on the other hand was exhibiting noisy switch contacts again so I tore it down to clean it.

First pix is the attenuator cover removed and the attenuator blocks pulled off. I sprayed all the contacts with deoxit then worked the switch back and forth. Let it sit for a few minutes then hosed it down with 100% IPA to flush out the Deoxit. Then dry with a blow dryer.



Close up of the attenuator board with the blocks removed.



Reinstalled the attenuator blocks and fired it up. Surprisingly the compensation looked OK. And everything was going well until I started inputting high frequencies such as 1MHz. The deck went completely noisy again with what looked like poor contact. But when I went back down to 1KHz it was rock stable. After working on this for a while and thinking it through I've come to the conclusion that the transmission lines in this attenuator assembly are just plain worn out and is causing roll off or have been damaged somehow by high voltage. Seems replacement is the only solution. Unfortunately the 465 parts mule I have uses a different attenuator assembly. So until I find a replacement channel 2 on this scope essentially useless. Oh well, have plenty of alternative scopes and this guy will just be a 1 channel scope.

All was not lost though. I also calibrated the DM44. 

Hi Med,

I was looking at the photos you have posted on this thread and find you have said “Close up of the attenuator board with the blocks removed.” This is exactly what I wanted to know and Tautech graciously pointed me to this thread. How can I remove those blocks? Are they simply pushed/plugged in place? I don’t want to damage anything there as it looks very fragile to say the least.
Appreciate any input you may have.

Thanks and happy Thanksgiving!

Andy

[GreyWoolfe]

Nope. On mine "Call Details" just shows the time of call and whether incoming or outgoing. It's fucking infuriating; you used to get all this info in your call history scroll by default, and that has been normal for decades. I can see allowing the morons to turn that off; but to just take it away completely is fucking idiotic.

EDIT: Oh, wait... I see now. They do offer that info on calls to/from a number in my contacts. But NOT for any other numbers. 

Have they restructured all this shit so it's part of your Contacts database...? That would explain why I have to assign a a special notification tone to every CONTACT instead of being able to assign it just to SMS MESSAGING like I used to be able to do...

This is beginning to smell like another aspect of  of their "your private Contacts list is our content" bullshit, where Contacts doesn't work right unless you're logged into Google services...

mnem
 

I suggest you have a good play with your phone settings and experiment a bit with the various options in particular with your phone app. I attach screen prints of my phone which is a Huawei P Smart 2019 and is running Android 10 and as you can see I can see all details to do with a call even if it is not a contact that I have saved in contacts database.

Great... so you CAN fix it, if you drill down deep enough to unfuckerize something that never should have been fucked with in the first place.  Or possibly your pwn, which came with Android9, is not 100% Android10 as is often the case with OTA and vendor-installed updates. Great... more effing rabbit-holes.

Like I don't have enough misery on my plate already... I need to outwit my smartPwn again, just to recover basic functionality...

mnem
Please excuse me... I need to toddle off and lick something now...

I have a note 20 ultra here and I can see the time of call and duration of non contact phone calls without any f@*kerization.  On another note, received a call on the personal phone today from my lead since I am on PTO and nowhere near the company phone.  Seems our manager, sort of seagull, he flew in, crapped on everything but never left.  Now he is leaving the company.  It's going to be a good Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.  Never had our backs, took child like delight in Rube Goldberging process and procedure to cheese us off and never trusted anything we would say.  Even though he has only been in the program for a few years whilst I have 16 years in the trenches as a field service tech.  I know some will say better the devil you know than the devil you don't.  Thanks to covid, we don't think he will be replaced any time soon.  His boss in Texas and the 2 leads here in Flori-DUH will be taking over his tasks.  Already some of the nonsense has gone by the wayside.  No more  , but 

[med6753]

Andy, yes...the attenuator blocks are plugged onto the board. To remove them simply grasp them carefully with a pair of pliers and pull straight up. Use care working around those finger contacts. They can be easily damaged.

The Tek recommended cleaning is IPA only with some paper between the contacts moved back and forth as a mild abrasive. But in my experience I have found this sometimes to be inadequate and SMALL amounts of deoxit can be used. Absolute worst case was I had to completely disassemble a similar attenuator assembly in a 7A24 plug-in and resort to emory paper which drew a great amount of criticism from the masses but guess what? It worked and to this day is still working.
 
This 465B has been my problem child. In the case of this Channel 2 attenuator switch deck I had to replace the entire assembly which was a crappy chore. But I found out why it wasn't working. Some prior Gorilla tech had been in there and stripped out several of mounts by overtightening them.   

[andy3055]

Med,

Thanks for the reply here and on my other post. It gives me some hope now.

I had fixed the 465M and I remember you and Tautech made some comments on that thread as well. I appreciate it very much. I actually love the 465M which was much easier to take apart than the 465. I Made a complete U550 block for it and potted only the EHT section. It works like a charm.

Thanks for the comments and great photos you have taken.

Regards.

Andy

[med6753]

Med,

Thanks for the reply here and on my other post. It gives me some hope now.

I had fixed the 465M and I remember you and Tautech made some comments on that thread as well. I appreciate it very much. I actually love the 465M which was much easier to take apart than the 465. I Made a complete U550 block for it and potted only the EHT section. It works like a charm.

Thanks for the comments and great photos you have taken.

Regards.

Andy

You're welcome. And if you need any additional assistance feel free to post in this thread.