Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I have worked HellDesk in more than a few scenarios. Wes had it right; if anything, he was entirely too kind...



mnem
     http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030128

[Cerebus]

The single most irritating part of windows admin, though, is that there is no good, natural way to make sure all user files end up on a network share. It's like "network" never happened for real in Redmond. I'd rather have a diskless workstation that swaps to NFS than that.

For a brief period Apple actually got this right. If you ran the server version of OS X it would add the appropriate things to DHCP so that when you were setting up a new machine it just knew that it was part of the network setup and would automatically just do the right thing according to what the local network administrator had configured. Unfortunately Apple just seemed to lose interest in this, to the point that the current 'macOS Server' is just another application that misses most of the features that the pukka Server OS had.

Sometime around OS X 10.6 I had a server running OS X Server at home. I'd, with little effort, set it up so that: all accounts had home directories on the server, you could log onto your own account from any machine in the house, and on my notebook I had a copy of my home directory both on the notebook and the server with automatic syncing between the two. Moreover, all the machines were automatically configured to run backups to network volumes. OS updates for client machines were cached on the server and you just ran any updates over the local network. You could netboot any system, even run diskless if you wanted, and you could run new installs over the network too. Add an account for a new machine to the server by ethernet address, pull it out of the wrapping, plug it in, hold the option and N keys while you turned it on and then go for a cup of coffee while the machine had the OS installed and was prepared for use - when you came back it was ready, fully configured, for the end user to log in for the first time.

You could even add Windows machines to the network with little effort (certainly less effort than fighting with Microsoft's horrible AD admin tools); even Linux machines if you were up to manually configuring the Linux machine to talk LDAP/Kerberos for directory services.

If Apple had pushed their server stuff a bit more (it was virtually a secret) they could and should have taken over the world with it. Admin-ing an Apple Server network was a breeze compared to any of the alternatives.

[factory]

Seems it takes about 10 years to activate the single use electronic-cigs from Maplins. 



The offending part here, a 16V rated one on a 12V rail.


As they are difficult to access (have to strip the front panel to get at them) I decided to change both of them for 25V parts.



I've no idea why only the pair of tants on the RF probe filter board seem to short out, nothing else has failed in the Racal 836 counter in the time I've had it. 

And while it was in bits I removed the fixed mains lead & reinstated the Bulgin socket now I have lots of them & the matching plug to go with it.


All back together with a replacement fuse for the -12V rail and I was finally able to test the 819 RF probe I acquired a couple of years back.


David

[Specmaster]

Today's Before the Kids Wake Up and Bug The Shit Outta Me All Day Project...

Cheap LiCE Brand batteries arrived yesterday... the only ones that wouldn't take more than a week to get to me, aside from some 99% sure they're counterfeit Energizers for $3 more.

A little Kapton tape mask-off, a little steel wool abuse, a little jeweler's rouge to make the worst scratches in the case go away... now soaking the leather band in vegetable oil and going to try stretching it a wee bit to see if I can get that "one more hole's worth" of adjustment I need to make it comfortable.

mnem
Oh crap... I hear my little sqweaker prattling away with her plushies...

It can be really difficult to come across the extra long watch straps, this I know from personal experience. It bugs the hell out of me having paid £300+ for a watch to pay a further £50+ for a larger strap / bracelet   

[mnementh]

Yeah... just discovered that while the CASIO-branded band itself on mine is leather, the little keeper loops are vinyl and have just disintegrated from handling.

Now off to shop something better myself.

mnem

[mnementh]

David...




mnem
Ehhhh... we were overdue.

[Cerebus]

It can be really difficult to come across the extra long watch straps, this I know from personal experience. I bugs the hell out of me having paid £300+ for a watch to pay a further £50+ for a larger strap / bracelet   

I have the opposite problem, very slender wrists, so finding a small enough strap can be a problem. When I used to still be a regular climber my forearms used to look like Popeye's with my forearm muscles easily twice the width of my wrist or more.

[mnementh]

Oh gewd laird... the sea of shite watch-bands that all look the same kind of shite, and the money they want for that shite! 

I think I'm just going to steal one of the stainless loops off of one of my old NATO bands for it and call it a day. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

@factory: nice job as always on the Racal 

[med6753]

David...




mnem
Ehhhh... we were overdue.

For once not me. 

[mnementh]

Bwahahahaha!!!

mnem
Don't worry... they'll be coming for you soon enough...   

[mnementh]

...I think I'm just going to steal one of the stainless loops off of one of my old NATO bands for it and call it a day. 

   

Aaaand sorted... in less time than it took me to type this missive. 

mnem
*toddles off to do something... constructive...?*

[Ice-Tea]

I have absolutely nothing with watches... But I *do* have nixies on my wrist 

[tonyalbus]

HP E3610 Coming my Way 

[tonyalbus]

iCloud login is down.... i wanted to doewload my just created videos... 

NOT solved.

[bd139]

Working now

[tonyalbus]

Here not yet...

[tonyalbus]

Using now my USB cable.... funny... that takes a lot longer then from the cloud over the internet..

[factory]

David...




mnem
Ehhhh... we were overdue.

For once not me. 

Been over 10 years since I've had a TANT fail at home (definitely overdue) and it was in this very counter, I've followed Med's advise and fitted the 25V ones instead of the 16V ones (12V supply).

@factory: nice job as always on the Racal 

The Racal 836 was the second counter I acquired (after the HP 5245L) in 2008, they were pretty much worthless then and it only cost a fiver on ePay (plus postage).
If your looking for another tube counter these are good, it's mostly 74 series logic (apart from a couple of TO-99 package 710 comparators) & transistors, no custom parts that I can see.

Edit: forgot to mention the crystal oven can be upgraded too, but this needs a change of base to the 7 pin type.

David

[mnementh]

Using now my USB cable.... funny... that takes a lot longer then from the cloud over the internet..

*cough*SNEAKERNET*cough*

mnem
*USB3.2 Flash Drive FTW*

[bd139]

Cloud is faster and more reliable than half the shitty flash drives out there now. I got so fed up I've got a Samsung 970 Evo on a SATA/USB bridge 

[ch_scr]

Today I replaced one dead capacitor on Y7651 GPIB option board. The only ELNA in the whole unit. What gave it away on the scond look was a circle of dust on the pcb around the cap. Dust stuck to leaked electrolyte, as it turned out. Thankfully not much close by.
 It got replaced by a recycled SMD Tant tacked on in the back 
To my defence: It's a 16V on a 5V rail & vias, groundplane below the original cap were eaten away completely.
Board has a groundplane on one and a powerplane on the other side, so no joy on the original footprint no more.
GPIB has been tested & works fine.

[tggzzz]

Using now my USB cable.... funny... that takes a lot longer then from the cloud over the internet..

*cough*SNEAKERNET*cough*

mnem
*USB3.2 Flash Drive FTW*

Old networking aphorism: never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes.

[med6753]

I found the problem with the Type 321A. Was doing some reading on the tin whisker problem with those Philips 2N2207's and decided to do some simple continuity checks. The transistors are in metal cases which are in holders securing them to the chassis. They are prone to have tin migration from the chip to the case. And since the cases are secured to the chassis the result is a short.

Q183 has a 16 ohm tin whisker short emitter to case. I checked all the other 2N2207's and they are OK. I found two 2N2207's on Ebay for $10 USD including shipping. Ordered....and I realize the risk of using them because it's a known issue with these Philips transistors but I want to stay original if I can.

(Am I seeing a pattern here? Blue Phillips capacitors suck. Phillips GE transistors have tin whisker issues. Maybe Philips should have stuck with what they did best....rape audiophools with their over priced tubes.  )

[mansaxel]

For a brief period Apple actually got this right.

Yes, I remember that period. I was way too deep in my own environment to want to do that, but it is pretty close to what Sun and a bunch of others who followed suit had with NIS+, but in the Apple case, less a lot of the horrible bugs and security holes.

I'm still running that own environment. I have bits and bobs of dot-files in my home directory that have been with me since the late 90s, and the Kerberos realm and AFS Cell I initiated back in say 2003 are still the same, but of course migrated to new hardware a bunch of times over the years (without migration related downtime, because they're built with longevity and manageability in mind). The Samba AD I run for the young ones Windows has its home directories in AFS (but Windows pukes user files all over C:\ because inside it is still a single-user non-networked toy OS, good for Minesweeper and viruses and that's all). My principle is that if it is in AFS, there's a chance I'll back it up, if not, prepare to cry. It's backed by a DNS service that's been running since last century, (my named.conf has its first RCS log entry from March 2000, but I had the server (then a Sun IPC with SunOS 5.7) running 1999, as this RCS entry from my zone file proves:

Code: [Select]

revision 1.1
date: 1999/03/07 16:07:48;  author: root;  state: Exp;
Initial revision
During this period, I've had several partners, worked for 6 different employers, lived 4 different places, become father to three children, but the domain name and IT system has stayed the same.
Yeah, call me entrenched.