Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

A lot of what we discuss here surrounds labs/workshops at home or other permanent locations.  I've slowly been assembling a set of portable test equipment since I have a number of use cases for on the road tools and test equipment.  Anybody else maintain a set of portable gear specifically for mobile use on the road?

Just a hammer and some carpet to roll things the body up in

There, FTFY. 

mnem
 

[tautech]

Even though the Lady Cop is here I'll be on Discord. She's all caught up on East Enders and is back on Midsommer Murders. 

I'm beginning to wonder if she's American or secretly a Brit. 

If she’s watching those we don’t want her 

LMAO.

I guess if she's watching those shows it tells you something about the "quality" of American TV shows. 

Try 'er on some Benny Hill. 

[mnementh]

Okies... I'm going to crack open the daughter's iPad. Pray for me.

Only 98 steps: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPad+6+Wi-Fi+Logic+Board+Replacement/107042   

mnem
If you don't hear from me on Discord, you know why. 

[tggzzz]

Just a hammer and some carpet to roll things in

Don't you find a Zerostat (a civilian taser) to be useful?

[bd139]

Even though the Lady Cop is here I'll be on Discord. She's all caught up on East Enders and is back on Midsommer Murders. 

I'm beginning to wonder if she's American or secretly a Brit. 

If she’s watching those we don’t want her 

LMAO.

I guess if she's watching those shows it tells you something about the "quality" of American TV shows. 

Yes we have a hell of a lot of American shows here.

American comedy shows are the worst. I can sit there for three hours and not even smirk.

Okies... I'm going to crack open the daughter's iPad. Pray for me.

mnem
If you don't hear from me on Discord, you know why. 

Good luck 

Just a hammer and some carpet to roll things in

Don't you find a Zerostat (a civilian taser) to be useful?

Not much use after the hammer!

[tggzzz]

Just a hammer and some carpet to roll things in

Don't you find a Zerostat (a civilian taser) to be useful?

Not much use after the hammer!

Hammers leave visible traces, which is awkward to explain when the trace is a bruise.

[bd139]

Just a hammer and some carpet to roll things in

Don't you find a Zerostat (a civilian taser) to be useful?

Not much use after the hammer!

Hammers leave visible traces, which is awkward to explain when the trace is a bruise.

That’s what the can of petrol poured on the carpet and the zippo are for.

[URI]

Not on discord tonight.
The past working week shows effect: Too tired even before 22:00..

Gute N8!

me schlepping to bed..

[mnementh]

Only 98 steps: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPad+6+Wi-Fi+Logic+Board+Replacement/107042   

Somewhere around step 17... pausing for a moment to find my Kapton tape to put over the camera and home button.

mnem
*rummage....rummage-rummage...*

[mansaxel]

A lot of what we discuss here surrounds labs/workshops at home or other permanent locations.  I've slowly been assembling a set of portable test equipment since I have a number of use cases for on the road tools and test equipment.  Anybody else maintain a set of portable gear specifically for mobile use on the road?

I have a mobile tool kit, as my original use case for TE involved touring. (to a limited extent.) It contains one multimeter, which probably will be the bigger of my two Gossen meters, and might get extended by the ScopeMeter 123 and of course my optics power meter.

I think we need a tool kit photo sub-thread. I'll get mine into shape come tomorrow, and take some pics en route.

[mnementh]

~Step 44. Got glass off in one piece, but may have damaged the digitizer cables with a pick due to left/right mistake viewing pictures. We'll see once I can power the thing up again.

mnem
 

[25 CPS]

A lot of what we discuss here surrounds labs/workshops at home or other permanent locations.  I've slowly been assembling a set of portable test equipment since I have a number of use cases for on the road tools and test equipment.  Anybody else maintain a set of portable gear specifically for mobile use on the road?

If anyone wants something fixed they bring it here. I don't make house calls. 

That's normally the case for me too except I'm winding down doing repairs for friends so I can have time to do my own projects for a while.  That idea gets tricky for things like railway museum stuff and other similarly huge items or fixed installations.  For example, bringing a full sized, 1:1 scale trolley car over because the controller's going haywire just isn't all that practical.

Yes I do. A number of kits in cases.
One for Car and general use with a 2 Ch picoscope, Panasonic Tough book, couple of ODBII interfaces Fluke 16, digital thermometer, probe and leads.
One for RF / EMC with Wavetek handheld spectrum analyser, leads, small antennas and near field probes.
Some kit comes ready for the road:
Fluke scopemeter
Anritsu Sitemaster
HP 8920 Radio test set.
Rados 1300 radiation detector
An there is a Fluke 25 permanently in the car incase I need a wheel chock or even have an electrical issue.
Personally I always carry a Leatherman (blade lock disabled so I don't have to justify carrying if stopped) and LED torch.

My portable kit isn't that comprehensive.  I've got a couple of Agilent/Keysight multimeters including a clamp, a U1602B portable scope, and a couple of Simpson 260 analogue multimeters for portable use.  I don't really do RF stuff on the road so that sort of thing's confined to the big bench at home but I might pick up a TinySA and NanoVNA since they're reasonably priced to take on the road just to have something to use to get instant insights into things but still have the heavy HP kit on the bench at home for serious work.

Even though the Lady Cop is here I'll be on Discord. She's all caught up on East Enders and is back on Midsommer Murders. 

I'm beginning to wonder if she's American or secretly a Brit. 

That's an interesting question indeed.  Maybe try out a little test?  Have "Coronation Street" playing when she arrives and if she gets into it, you might have your answer.

[25 CPS]

~Step 44. Got glass off in one piece, but may have damaged the digitizer cables with a pick due to left/right mistake viewing pictures. We'll see.

mnem
 

Fingers crossed that it's ok.  I've never attempted to repair an Apple devices so I don't have any insights or advice to offer on this one.  I'm sure you'll be posting pictures of a successful repair soon enough though!

[bd139]

Fingers crossed that it's ok.  I've never attempted to repair an Apple devices so I don't have any insights or advice to offer on this one.  I'm sure you'll be posting pictures of a successful repair soon enough though!

Trick is to walk into an Apple store and stick your hands around a genius' neck until a new device arrives from the magic door at the back. Then dodge the crossfire from the local fuzz.

[mnementh]

Step Number 0-0-0h-fuck me-0-0h....

Urrrk. Glad I took it apart first; looks like wrong information in my initial research. This model does have the TriStar chip on the mainboard. That's it hiding, in that fully armor-plated little corner, right there. Oi.

mnem
fuck Apple. Fuck the intardNet. Fuck... fuck... what-the-fuck-ever... fuck...

[mnementh]

Fingers crossed that it's ok.  I've never attempted to repair an Apple devices so I don't have any insights or advice to offer on this one.  I'm sure you'll be posting pictures of a successful repair soon enough though!

Trick is to walk into an Apple store and stick your hands around a genius' neck until a new device arrives from the magic door at the back. Then dodge the crossfire from the local fuzz.

No, just take my mask off and start sneezing on the motherfuckers until someone shits me a iPad Pro.

mnem
You know, asshole tax. 

[Specmaster]

Even though the Lady Cop is here I'll be on Discord. She's all caught up on East Enders and is back on Midsommer Murders. 

I'm beginning to wonder if she's American or secretly a Brit. 

If she’s watching those we don’t want her 

LMAO.

I guess if she's watching those shows it tells you something about the "quality" of American TV shows. 

Yes we have a hell of a lot of American shows here.

American comedy shows are the worst. I can sit there for three hours and not even smirk.

I'm almost the same, sometimes I can find the occasional thing to laugh / smirk at but not as often as I do with British Comedy. That I expect is largely because we have grown up with the home-grown humour?

My boys on the other hand seem to be more biased towards the American humour 

[Specmaster]

Oh hell, I missed discord, I completely forgot about it, partly due to a little family discord tonight brought about partly due to a faulty iPhone 8, and shitty backup service from the suppliers of the refurbished phones 

[mnementh]

      

Had to knock together a little corntact board to connect to the iPud batteries; that way I can use my LiPo balance charger to charge them. Only slightly overkill. Even so, limiting current to 1A and leaving terminal voltage at stock 4.2 even tho these are technically a HV cell. Will probably take 8-10 hours if it doesn't time out first. Mug is only there to serve as a brick for weight.

This will allow me (hopefully) to do testing on the digitizer and home button so I can confirm whether they were damaged when I slipped up with one of my guitar picks earlier.

If so, I can get replacements on the way now; I've found a replacement TriStar 1610A3b from a local Ontario vendor for only CAD$9 shipped first-class mail, and the cheapest possible CAD$50 Hot Air rework gun, both through Amazon.

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[Robert763]

25cps mentioned current clamps in his kit. This reminded me that I didn't include my 4 channel Picoscope Automotive Kit. This is a full kit including two current clamps and works with the automotive software. This is very comprehensive and can doe clever stuff like check compression with just a current clamp.

[Saskia]

I always have a spare car battery, soap, clamps, a sponge, a coil, some shackles, a board and something to pour water with in my car. I do make house calls.

 

Thanks everybody for asking about hubby. His heart was not affected, however he has internal hemorrhaging which they cannot fix right now because he is still on blood thinners and surgery would be too risky. We will have to wait it out (at least 6 months).

Shitshow. It really is.

[bd139]

Even though the Lady Cop is here I'll be on Discord. She's all caught up on East Enders and is back on Midsommer Murders. 

I'm beginning to wonder if she's American or secretly a Brit. 

If she’s watching those we don’t want her 

LMAO.

I guess if she's watching those shows it tells you something about the "quality" of American TV shows. 

Yes we have a hell of a lot of American shows here.

American comedy shows are the worst. I can sit there for three hours and not even smirk.

I'm almost the same, sometimes I can find the occasional thing to laugh / smirk at but not as often as I do with British Comedy. That I expect is largely because we have grown up with the home-grown humour?

My boys on the other hand seem to be more biased towards the American humour 

No it’s just the American stuff isn’t funny. They program you with cues of when to laugh. If there were no cues there would be no laugh.

[mnementh]

I agree to a certain point... we have had some great comedians born over here, but it is true that on the whole the entire lot tends to be pretty lowbrow. We don't do cerebral humor very much or very well. Even when we have smart characters, they tend to be in a "smart people so dumb" role.  That, of course, is what you get when you have stupid people writing smart characters.

But Robin Williams is arguably one of the most naturally funny people who ever lived... and George Carlin... even Dennis Miller before he sold out... and watching King of the Hill again with my son has reminded me just how incisive Mike Judge's wit is, and he has a knack for boiling down the important issues of this crazy and complex world down to their essence. Also, as a parent of two precocious kids, I find I do connect on an entirely different level from when it first aired. Same is true of Home Improvement, even though those kids are grandparents in their own right by now.

Sadly, most of the really creative stuff produced over here is cartoons, and has been for decades. It seems Americans can only handle discussion of "the real stuff" and "shows that make you think" if they come couched in an absolutely fantasty setting.

I just finished rewatching Good Omens with my son; of course that was produced by the Beeb. We also very much enjoyed Dirk Gently; tho we felt the 2nd season was a bit formulaic.

I'm hoping I can get him to watch the Beeb's HHGttG; might need to get BritBox just for that. 

mnem
*fulminating at the mind again*

[0culus]

Let's not pretend that British comedy isn't often lowbrow...Benny Hill for instance, Mrs. Brown's Boys, etc. But they still manage to be much funnier than 99% of the swill that US comedians do (and I say this as a dyed in the wool American). It's like people have forgotten how to be funny without using very lowbrow humor that well, isn't even funny. Mrs. Brown on the other hand will have me rolling on the floor dying of laughter no matter how many times I rewatch it. 

[AVGresponding]

I could write an extremely long list of good US comedies, both film and TV.

Just because there may not be anything of note being produced at the moment, doesn't mean there never has been.

It's also worth noting that humour is a highly subjective thing, regardless of nationality.