Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

*farts in your general direction to make your lab smell better* 

Which reminds me:

https://fb.watch/2uOs_NqhVY/

Dangit, how do you post video around here. Like this?

https://fb.watch/2uOs_NqhVY/

You need to erase FuckwitBook from your life and find the video on yoobToob.     Pulling the plug on that timesink soul-vampire toxic waste dump years ago was the best thing I did for my personal well-being since I quit smoking.



Just copy the url from your browser (not the "Copy URL" hover dialog on the video) and SMF will parse it into a embedded vid.

mnem

[Cerebus]

You need to erase FuckwitBook from your life and find the video on yoobToob.     Pulling the plug on that timesink soul-vampire toxic waste dump years ago was the best thing I did for my personal well-being since I quit smoking.

+1 to that, but he did me a favour because fb.watch wasn't in my DNS blackhole list* and, surprisingly, isn't in the disconnect list that I use to fill in gaps in my own personally curated list of scumbags, sneaks, voyeurs, and other criminals who don't deserve to have their packets permitted anywhere on my network.

*Like PI-Hole, but subtler and running on my own DNS resolver rather than needing an extra box to run on.

[SilverSolder]

[...]

[...]

OMG the part at 13:04 in that video where the "caring mother" was teaching her kid to steal...   

The requirements for getting a driver's license are higher than the requirements for having a child....

[Ice-Tea]

You need to erase FuckwitBook from your life and find the video on yoobToob.   

No worries. Don't think I spend more than half an hour a week on that

Just copy the url from your browser (not the "Copy URL" hover dialog on the video) and SMF will parse it into a embedded vid.

Thanks

[BU508A]

Grmpf! 

Was the second highest bidder on a Prema 6048 8 1/2 digit multimeter.
I hope, it'll find a nice new home...

* BU508A kicking some small pebbles....

[mnementh]

This is the first one I've seen that actually pulls them all together into one video for a comprehensive comparison.

Maybe AMD could release a GPU that can actually compete sometime soon... it's almost a year since I gave up and bought a 2080Super because I had been waiting almost a year for something capable of driving my new OdysseyPlus VR... and they STILL have yet to appreciably step up their GPU game.

What with NVidia being all in the news for being evil again... now would be perfect timing. 

mnem
 

[tautech]

Grmpf! 

Was the second highest bidder on a Prema 6048 8 1/2 digit multimeter.
I hope, it'll find a nice new home...

* BU508A kicking some small pebbles....

[/b]

Take a stress relief outta Saskia's book and go and shoot something or blow something up ! 

On the lathe again today.....picks of stuff later when done.

[Cerebus]

You need to erase FuckwitBook from your life and find the video on yoobToob.   

No worries. Don't think I spend more than half an hour a week on that

Just copy the url from your browser (not the "Copy URL" hover dialog on the video) and SMF will parse it into a embedded vid.

Thanks

While it occurs to me, it's worth mentioning unshort.link. It's a service that will 'defang' a lot of the tracking aspects of URL shorteners, and give you the underlying link. They also have a browser add-on for Firefox and Chrome to automatically spot those links and redirect you. It doesn't cut out all the tracking from URL shorteners, the first person to use it to defang a link will get partially tracked, subsequent users of the same link don't.

[Mr. Scram]

This is the first one I've seen that actually pulls them all together into one video for a comprehensive comparison.

Maybe AMD could release a GPU that can actually compete sometime soon... it's almost a year since I gave up and bought a 2080Super because I had been waiting almost a year for something capable of driving my new OdysseyPlus VR... and they STILL have yet to appreciably step up their GPU game.

What with NVidia being all in the news for being evil again... now would be perfect timing. 

mnem
 

Both Nvidia's and AMD's new offerings beat the pants of any 2080 variant. The latter is still a competent card but upgrades are to be had.

[Specmaster]

Yep seen that. Plastics are one of our stupidest mistakes as a species.

Using less plastics is probably a good outcome. I notice that a lot of the higher quality stuff these days has minimal plastic content. It’s either wood, paper, glass, ceramics or metals.

This is probably why Apple on many of their new phones are now shipping them in smaller cardboard boxes that do not contain a charger. Good you might think, the world has a good supply of old chargers as they tend to outlive the phones, so you can re-use the old charger which must be a good idea, yes?...

Wrong, because the charger lead that Apple supply has the Lightening connector on the phone end BUT, instead of a USB A on the charger end, after that makes sense, since that has been the standard for years, Apple supply a lead with USB C on the end, which will not of course fit the old charger 

This move I suspect is designed to force buyers of new Apple phones to dash out and buy either new USB A lead to use their old chargers, or I suspect, more likely take advantage of their fanatical fan base, buy a new charger with a USB C interface. This I for sure is happening because 4 members of my family have all purchased new Apple phones in the last 4 weeks and the first 2 came with chargers and leads of the USB A  type, and 2 latest ones (last 2 weeks) both came in smaller boxes and type C leads FFS.

[Mr. Scram]

Do I see some Ferengi in there? 

Fondle my lobes, daddy.

[bd139]

Yep seen that. Plastics are one of our stupidest mistakes as a species.

Using less plastics is probably a good outcome. I notice that a lot of the higher quality stuff these days has minimal plastic content. It’s either wood, paper, glass, ceramics or metals.

This is probably why Apple on many of their new phones are now shipping them in smaller cardboard boxes that do not contain a charger. Good you might think, the world has a good supply of old chargers as they tend to outlive the phones, so you can re-use the old charger which must be a good idea, yes?...

Wrong, because the charger lead that Apple supply has the Lightening connector on the phone end BUT, instead of a USB A on the charger end, after that makes sense, since that has been the standard for years, Apple supply a lead with USB C on the end, which will not of course fit the old charger 

This move I suspect is designed to force buyers of new Apple phones to dash out and buy either new USB A lead to use their old chargers, or I suspect, more likely take advantage of their fanatical fan base, buy a new charger with a USB C interface. This I for sure is happening because 4 members of my family have all purchased new Apple phones in the last 4 weeks and the first 2 came with chargers and leads of the USB A  type, and 2 latest ones (last 2 weeks) both came in smaller boxes and type C leads FFS.

I didn't buy one for my iPhone 12

Edit: Also got an Anker powerbank that has a USB-C hole, four computers with USB-C and a docking station with USB-C.

As for the reason, this is down to EU which mandated USB-C which is a good thing. We're in the transition period away from Lightning and USB-A. The iPad Pro has USB-C for example in the unit. This is about the long game which will take 5-10 years for the old devices to drop off the radar.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Grmpf! 

Was the second highest bidder on a Prema 6048 8 1/2 digit multimeter.
I hope, it'll find a nice new home...

* BU508A kicking some small pebbles....

Saw it too. But I wasn't bidding. How high did it go?

[mansaxel]

... Apple supply a lead with USB C on the end, which will not of course fit the old charger 

I support this move. Because, when they bury the inventor of the USB-C plug, they won't have to partially exhume the coffin twice to get it to fit the right way in the grave.

Still, there is nothing I've seen that comes even close to the MagSafe. The MBP I'm typing this on is old enough to have it.  It is a splendid example of good, user focused design. It helps the user by doing the right thing.

Finally, to hum the tune BD sang in his reply; we're in a transition period right now. It will be better when we're though. And yes, I've got a USB-C to RS232 adapter cable.

[BU508A]

Grmpf! 

Was the second highest bidder on a Prema 6048 8 1/2 digit multimeter.
I hope, it'll find a nice new home...

* BU508A kicking some small pebbles....

Saw it too. But I wasn't bidding. How high did it go?

It was sold for 1260,- Euro

[Neomys Sapiens]

Had a bad day yesterday.

Remember my "High Voltage" power supply project? I've finally gone with the TAoE approach. Last weekend the breadboard version worked very satisfactorily.
Yesterday I decided to test what current I could permit at the pass transistor. This should be limited by temperature only, as I'm far within the DC SOA. So I shorted the output and incremented the current slowly, checking the temp of the pass transistor. Or so I thought. All of a sudden, the current sensing resistor and the pass transistor's gate resistor burst into flames! That gave me an inkling that not all was well ... Guess the pass transistor passed out, shorting all 3 of its legs. The carnage included 2 OP77, a TL431, another resistor, even the µA87M15 of the aux PSU went south. And my breadboard is scorched. Should have made a FMEA first. From errors we learn, or, in my case: Only from errors I learn. A slight redesign should take care of the issue.

And in the evening, while watching a recorded movie, the HDMI output of my VU Duo² quit.

Blame it on 2020.

Do you have a link to the circuit outside of TAoE?
And to your specs? (U, I,...)

[Specmaster]

Yep seen that. Plastics are one of our stupidest mistakes as a species.

Using less plastics is probably a good outcome. I notice that a lot of the higher quality stuff these days has minimal plastic content. It’s either wood, paper, glass, ceramics or metals.

This is probably why Apple on many of their new phones are now shipping them in smaller cardboard boxes that do not contain a charger. Good you might think, the world has a good supply of old chargers as they tend to outlive the phones, so you can re-use the old charger which must be a good idea, yes?...

Wrong, because the charger lead that Apple supply has the Lightening connector on the phone end BUT, instead of a USB A on the charger end, after that makes sense, since that has been the standard for years, Apple supply a lead with USB C on the end, which will not of course fit the old charger 

This move I suspect is designed to force buyers of new Apple phones to dash out and buy either new USB A lead to use their old chargers, or I suspect, more likely take advantage of their fanatical fan base, buy a new charger with a USB C interface. This I for sure is happening because 4 members of my family have all purchased new Apple phones in the last 4 weeks and the first 2 came with chargers and leads of the USB A  type, and 2 latest ones (last 2 weeks) both came in smaller boxes and type C leads FFS.

I didn't buy one for my iPhone 12

Edit: Also got an Anker powerbank that has a USB-C hole, four computers with USB-C and a docking station with USB-C.

As for the reason, this is down to EU which mandated USB-C which is a good thing. We're in the transition period away from Lightning and USB-A. The iPad Pro has USB-C for example in the unit. This is about the long game which will take 5-10 years for the old devices to drop off the radar.

I don't have an issue with the actual products themselves being fitted with the USB-C, but come on, you have to admit that selling a new product with no means of charging the device, or even an explanation that you need to source a suitable charging unit to accept the USB-C is kind of, well utter shit and stupid. I can see the logic why the EU think it is a good idea to adopt USB-C, just as I can see the same logic in adopting the lightning interface on the Apple products, there is no right or wrong way to plug it in and no damage can be done regardless of its orientation.

But to sell a product without a suitable charger  included is plain dumb. Right now the logic of selling products without a charger would perhaps work out perfectly OK because there is a vast amount of USB-A interfaced chargers already in the world, so his new phone would be able to be recharged without any problems, but a relatively new type of interface, no way. Fortunately he was able to charge the phone but only because I already had invested in a wireless charging pad for my company Windows based phone (sadly I had to hand it back when they went to Samsung phones), but I kept the pad. So for the time being, as his phone also supports wireless charging he is OK.

[Specmaster]

God, its all kicking off outside in the street, 1 ambulance, 2 paramedics and an emergency unit from the air ambulance service, doing what appears to be an emergency operation on an elderly man in the middle of the road, its bloody cold out there too. Road is totally blocked off.

Edit: All completed, ambulance gone to hospital with blues on and the Police were here first it seems, parked in front of the ambulance, and I thought this was a quiet road I lived on.

[VK5RC]

*farts in your general direction to make your lab smell better* 

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a digitizer mallet*

That is true, I have learnt from experience, everything that touches that goo, stinks, so I start with a new rubbish liner - all the cleaning rags/cloths, old parts go into it and it hits the outside bin pronto.
Even running the 'cleaned' machine stinks, fortunately we are having lovely weather here (min 12C max 24-28C)so the lab can be left open for hours at a time.
I am going to stock up on a variety of IEC filters - fortunately there only seems about 5-6 common variants used by HP during the times that most of my gear originates from.
That way, I am sure, if I have a spare, I will never need to use it, and my children clearing out my deceased estate will again say 'silly old bastard - look at all this stuff' 😜👍

If you do that, don't make the mistake I did of getting new-old-stock without replacing the RIFAs in them before using them. I had a completely unused one fail about two minutes after it first had power applied to it.

For me the quandary is should I 'preventatively' replace IEC filters in old gear.
I am not sure the durability of the product I would use to replace the old and functional part is worth the time/effort /risk of damage to the equipment.
 I have about 60 or so bits of HP type equipment from the 1980-90s that probably has IEC /EMI filters (I haven't checked them all) and my failure rate seems to be one every couple of years. Some of the gear requires serious dismantling - something I am reluctant to do unless I really have to. My current strategy is to have a supervised switch on every few months.
Rob

[srb1954]

For me the quandary is should I 'preventatively' replace IEC filters in old gear.
I am not sure the durability of the product I would use to replace the old and functional part is worth the time/effort /risk of damage to the equipment.
 I have about 60 or so bits of HP type equipment from the 1980-90s that probably has IEC /EMI filters (I haven't checked them all) and my failure rate seems to be one every couple of years. Some of the gear requires serious dismantling - something I am reluctant to do unless I really have to. My current strategy is to have a supervised switch on every few months.
Rob

Get yourself an insulation resistance tester and regularly check the insulation between live, neutral and earth. This should help weed out those IEC filters with RIFA capacitors that are not long for this world. This is most effective on Y capacitors but less so on X capacitors, which usually have a paralleled discharge resistor. An X capacitor generally has to be really leaky before it shows up in an insulation resistance test.
 
I regularly check my instruments and record the results. I can see year by year the deterioration in insulation resistance even for equipment that has sat on the shelf the whole time. Mostly, I see Schaffner filters going leaky over time but I also see a significant number of TDK filters going bad as well.

[med6753]

*farts in your general direction to make your lab smell better* 

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a digitizer mallet*

That is true, I have learnt from experience, everything that touches that goo, stinks, so I start with a new rubbish liner - all the cleaning rags/cloths, old parts go into it and it hits the outside bin pronto.
Even running the 'cleaned' machine stinks, fortunately we are having lovely weather here (min 12C max 24-28C)so the lab can be left open for hours at a time.
I am going to stock up on a variety of IEC filters - fortunately there only seems about 5-6 common variants used by HP during the times that most of my gear originates from.
That way, I am sure, if I have a spare, I will never need to use it, and my children clearing out my deceased estate will again say 'silly old bastard - look at all this stuff' 😜👍

If you do that, don't make the mistake I did of getting new-old-stock without replacing the RIFAs in them before using them. I had a completely unused one fail about two minutes after it first had power applied to it.

For me the quandary is should I 'preventatively' replace IEC filters in old gear.
I am not sure the durability of the product I would use to replace the old and functional part is worth the time/effort /risk of damage to the equipment.
 I have about 60 or so bits of HP type equipment from the 1980-90s that probably has IEC /EMI filters (I haven't checked them all) and my failure rate seems to be one every couple of years. Some of the gear requires serious dismantling - something I am reluctant to do unless I really have to. My current strategy is to have a supervised switch on every few months.
Rob

I haven't yet experienced the displeasure and stink of an IEC filter or RIFA going up in smoke. It seems they are more prone to this bad behavior with 240V mains rather than 120V mains. But I have replaced cracked RIFA's on two Tek 2465's and one Tek 2430. I do need to check some other equipment here like the two HP counters but other than that I'm not aware of any other potential time bombs.

[Zucca]

Installing Kicad, I am nervous.

[mnementh]

Yep seen that. Plastics are one of our stupidest mistakes as a species.

Using less plastics is probably a good outcome. I notice that a lot of the higher quality stuff these days has minimal plastic content. It’s either wood, paper, glass, ceramics or metals.

This is probably why Apple on many of their new phones are now shipping them in smaller cardboard boxes that do not contain a charger. Good you might think, the world has a good supply of old chargers as they tend to outlive the phones, so you can re-use the old charger which must be a good idea, yes?...

Wrong, because the charger lead that Apple supply has the Lightening connector on the phone end BUT, instead of a USB A on the charger end, after that makes sense, since that has been the standard for years, Apple supply a lead with USB C on the end, which will not of course fit the old charger 

This move I suspect is designed to force buyers of new Apple phones to dash out and buy either new USB A lead to use their old chargers, or I suspect, more likely take advantage of their fanatical fan base, buy a new charger with a USB C interface. This I for sure is happening because 4 members of my family have all purchased new Apple phones in the last 4 weeks and the first 2 came with chargers and leads of the USB A  type, and 2 latest ones (last 2 weeks) both came in smaller boxes and type C leads FFS.

I didn't buy one for my iPhone 12

Edit: Also got an Anker powerbank that has a USB-C hole, four computers with USB-C and a docking station with USB-C.

As for the reason, this is down to EU which mandated USB-C which is a good thing. We're in the transition period away from Lightning and USB-A. The iPad Pro has USB-C for example in the unit. This is about the long game which will take 5-10 years for the old devices to drop off the radar.

I don't have an issue with the actual products themselves being fitted with the USB-C, but come on, you have to admit that selling a new product with no means of charging the device, or even an explanation that you need to source a suitable charging unit to accept the USB-C is kind of, well utter shit and stupid. I can see the logic why the EU think it is a good idea to adopt USB-C, just as I can see the same logic in adopting the lightning interface on the Apple products, there is no right or wrong way to plug it in and no damage can be done regardless of its orientation.

But to sell a product without a suitable charger  included is plain dumb. Right now the logic of selling products without a charger would perhaps work out perfectly OK because there is a vast amount of USB-A interfaced chargers already in the world, so his new phone would be able to be recharged without any problems, but a relatively new type of interface, no way. Fortunately he was able to charge the phone but only because I already had invested in a wireless charging pad for my company Windows based phone (sadly I had to hand it back when they went to Samsung phones), but I kept the pad. So for the time being, as his phone also supports wireless charging he is OK.

Ehhhhhh...

The fact is that Qi wireless charging is a de-facto standard now... and a very widespread one... and even more so is USB-C. I have no problem with them shipping phones without that one more fucking charger I don't need; just one less in the landfill, so in the long run we all pay a tiny bit less.

And hopefully this change, and the move to a proper standard USB-C, means the death of "gotta be fucking Apple" chargers and fuxxoring cables. 

mnem
But I wouldn't bet on it.

[mnementh]

   

Boring mundane household object print number 137: Hooks to hang my headphonezz up.

mnem
*yawwnnnn*

[VK5RC]

For me the quandary is should I 'preventatively' replace IEC filters in old gear.
I am not sure the durability of the product I would use to replace the old and functional part is worth the time/effort /risk of damage to the equipment.
 I have about 60 or so bits of HP type equipment from the 1980-90s that probably has IEC /EMI filters (I haven't checked them all) and my failure rate seems to be one every couple of years. Some of the gear requires serious dismantling - something I am reluctant to do unless I really have to. My current strategy is to have a supervised switch on every few months.
Rob

Get yourself an insulation resistance tester and regularly check the insulation between live, neutral and earth. This should help weed out those IEC filters with RIFA capacitors that are not long for this world. This is most effective on Y capacitors but less so on X capacitors, which usually have a paralleled discharge resistor. An X capacitor generally has to be really leaky before it shows up in an insulation resistance test.
 
I regularly check my instruments and record the results. I can see year by year the deterioration in insulation resistance even for equipment that has sat on the shelf the whole time. Mostly, I see Schaffner filters going leaky over time but I also see a significant number of TDK filters going bad as well.

That is a very useful tip, thanks
Rob