Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Ok for science I just tried mixing the two together unsuccessfully. Messy and looks and tastes like ass.

And all in the best possible taste....Kenny Everett

Welp... there's 90 seconds of my life I'll never get back... I think I'd rather have taste-tested the vodka-Nutella ass-butter... 

mnem
*starts writing up a bill for services rendered*

Kenny Everett was a comic genius, really using TV to its full extent. That Cupid Stunt quote "all done in the best possible taste" has become a meme.

That was mostly dwagon tongue-in-cheek... tho I have to admit, I've never had the same appreciation for comedy that revolves around guys in drag as seems endemic to Brits. 

Maybe it has to do with "queer" always being pretty much a "Who fucking cares...?" thing for me as I grew up half the time on a farm and half in the city, so never really got too rooted in either mindset.

In fact, that situation made it much easier for me to look at a lot of the "social norms" in either scenario with a more analytical attitude, and I realized at a young age how ridiculous so many of the "little personal repressions" we take for granted as required social lubricant really are. 

mnem
 

The whole British tradition of dragging up theatrically, especially unconvincingly, has nothing to do with being gay. The most famous acts to do so were almost all straight. So was Kenny Everett as far as the British public knew when he was doing the Cupid Stunt character. The fella didn't come out of the closet until after his ex-wife outed him in her biography in 1988 which was just as his TV career was rather winding down.

The gay drag scene in Britain is a whole different thing and tends to be limited to live venues although there has been a British version of Ru Paul's Drag race on British TV in recent years. Two much missed London venues, Madame JoJo's and the Vauxhall Tavern were the one time heart of the British gay drag scene.

[Cubdriver]

I got my HP 6209B working. I lucked out that this unit and the owner's manual were created with ease-of-maintenance as a requirement. Of course I had to replace the autopsied, definitely-not-a-film cap, but I figured that while I've got the patient opened up on the operating table I'd replace the other big caps before they go all RIFA on my ass. I tested the capacitance and ESR of all of the outgoing caps and also of the incoming caps as well. Those old Sprague caps looked great on the LCR meter. I was surprised that one of the outgoing caps was right on spec for capacitance and had a (slightly) lower ESR than the cap that was to replace it. That's for an aluminum electrolytic made in 1986. Hats off to HP for buying really nice caps. I also replaced the integrated power cord. I wouldn't have had to, but some rocket surgeon twisted the old one up tight before putting this unit into storage several decades ago and it had taken a set as curly as the handset cord on a Western Electric Model 500. After buttoning everything back up I cranked up the power supply to 300V / 100mA and hooked it up to my DC electronic load for a few minutes. I'm proud that I was able to get it running again. I will never be at the pro level but I am enjoying the journey.

And that's why *I* am not inclined to shotgun caps in old test gear.  YMMV.

Because the new caps have only two leads, the caps were flapping in the breeze so I tacked them down with a bit of electronics-friendly silicone. I wouldn't be able to live with myself, if, after I died, the unit failed because a cap lead broke from vibrations during shipping.

The manual has a couple of interesting items. Even though it's rated for 0-320V, "[...] the power supply can be operated floating at up to a maximum of 300 Volts off ground". Also, the procedure for setting the current in CV mode includes the following: "Short circuit output terminals, set meter switch to desired current range and adjust Current Controls for desired output current." Well, when the output is set to 300V, shorting the output terminals results in a spark and an audible "pop".

That is rather alarming, true.  It startled me the first time, too.  My workaround is to either short the terminals with the voltage at zero, then turn it up a bit and set the current, or if I've set the voltage already and don't want to disturb it, turn the power off before shorting the terminals for current setting, then turn it on and set the current.  Another alternative if voltage is preset is to turn it on with the current limit at minimum, then adjust it to the desired level.

I've been using it lately to play with reforming can electrolytics.  This is a 40uF, 350V one that's been cooking for about a day with the power supply maxed out; leakage current is under 3 uA.  At some point I need to take advantage of that floating ability to series two supplies to get to the full working voltage of some of the higher voltage cans.  The Data Precision meter is acting as a sanity check for the HP 4339A; I thought I'd remembered it acting up a while back but it has been good for several days now.  I also sanity checked the current reading on the 3440A using my Agilent handheld; it is in fact in the sub 3 uA range.  And yes, the bench is a disaster worthy of a 70s epic film.


-Pat

[mnementh]

...That was mostly dwagon tongue-in-cheek... tho I have to admit, I've never had the same appreciation for comedy that revolves around guys in drag as seems endemic to Brits. 

Maybe it has to do with "queer" always being pretty much a "Who fucking cares...?" thing for me as I grew up half the time on a farm and half in the city, so never really got too rooted in either mindset.

In fact, that situation made it much easier for me to look at a lot of the "social norms" in either scenario with a more analytical attitude, and I realized at a young age how ridiculous so many of the "little personal repressions" we take for granted as required social lubricant really are. 

mnem
 

The whole British tradition of dragging up theatrically, especially unconvincingly, has nothing to do with being gay. The most famous acts to do so were almost all straight. So was Kenny Everett as far as the British public knew when he was doing the Cupid Stunt character. The fella didn't come out of the closet until after his ex-wife outed him in her biography in 1988 which was just as his TV career was rather winding down.

The gay drag scene in Britain is a whole different thing and tends to be limited to live venues although there has been a British version of Ru Paul's Drag race on British TV in recent years. Two much missed London venues, Madame JoJo's and the Vauxhall Tavern were the one time heart of the British gay drag scene.

Yeah, I understand that; trust me, you aren't the first of my Brit friends who's tried to explain it to me. 

It's definitely a "cultural subconscious" thing that won't make sense unless you grew up with it, like the way Americans are programmed to react to certain scenes from popular action-adventure movies, which themselves were crafted to tap into existing cultural subconscious cues from previous generations. But across the generations, from age 16 to 60, certain images recalling those movies will engender certain emotional responses in near-Pavlovian response.

I know I'm a bit of a misanthrope; most of my life, I've literally had to force myself to consciously look for these nonverbal cues and produce the expected results to set my fellow hominids at ease around me. For lack of a better term, I'm "dense" where these cues are concerned; more so than even the average Homer Simpson citizen. I've come to terms with it; I take reasonable care to emulate "normal" response as best I can, but I do feel "reasonable care" is the only reasonable standard here.

But thanks for taking the time to try and explain it to your poor uncultured 'merkin cousin.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

This one made a "Honorable Mention" in my own personal "RIFA Horror Slideshow" collection... 

mnem
they took my thumbs.

[Cerebus]

But thanks for taking the time to try and explain it to your poor uncultured 'merkin cousin.

Ahh, that's not true. You guys have got lots of culture: Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Escherichia, ... 

Time to hit the sack, my eyelids are drooping. And to think once upon a time at this time on a Friday night I'd be one saying "Na, let's not go home yet. The night is young".

[SilverSolder]

[...]
And that's why *I* am not inclined to shotgun caps in old test gear.  YMMV.
[...]

Agree.

Why only shotgun the caps, if you are of that ilk?  You'd have to shotgun every component to be really sure nothing has drifted...  and that essentially means... buying new equipment!

Seems a better plan to verify that the old equipment lives up to its specs...  and only start replacing stuff when it doesn't.

[med6753]

Even being conservative roughly half of all equipment failures are capacitor related. The other half is everything else. My experience shows capacitor failure percentage rate to be much higher. But I'll give you only half. Even with those numbers IMHO it's still prudent to change them all. As mnem has said many times. They are Murphy's foot soldiers. You always lose when you go against Murphy.   

[med6753]

-Pat

Pat, is the 3 in 1 oil to lube the nixies if they start squeaking?   

[Cubdriver]

-Pat

Pat, is the 3 in 1 oil to lube the nixies if they start squeaking?   

Just its presence there seems to keep 'em quiet.   

-Pat

[Saskia]

Speaking of caps. My Burmester preamp failed, one channel completely dead. Burmester does remove any hints as to which components they use and they do not provide schematics.
"We suggest you send it in for service, we don't have the full set of parts for the classic units, and we do not care about right to repair ..."
They did tell me though that once I find replacement parts there was no need to fiddle around with the trimmers in there. Tracked the issue down to a bloody Tantal cap which had shorted.

[Saskia]

Disembowelment blade: I have a katana. I can do Kaishakunin.

[tautech]

Disembowelment blade: I have a katana. I can do Kaishakunin.

Please don’t need to do Seppuku. 

[Saskia]

No intention.

[BU508A]

Disembowelment blade: I have a katana. I can do Kaishakunin.

 

I need more coffee.
I've read the first time "Kardashian".       

[tautech]

No intention.

 

[beanflying]

Disembowelment blade: I have a katana. I can do Kaishakunin.

 

I need more coffee.
I've read the first time "Kardashian".       

Someone/family who deserves beheading for mass lobotomizing slabs of the worlds population 

[BU508A]

A new video from Marco Reps. This time about the Fluke 732A.

[duckduck]

Even being conservative roughly half of all equipment failures are capacitor related. The other half is everything else. My experience shows capacitor failure percentage rate to be much higher. But I'll give you only half. Even with those numbers IMHO it's still prudent to change them all. As mnem has said many times. They are Murphy's foot soldiers. You always lose when you go against Murphy.   

^^^ I subscribe to this philosophy.

FedEx delivered my DMM. It's a GW Instek GDM-8251A which is a 120,000 count (~5 digit) bench DMM. This model is discontinued. I believe that this model was first released around 2013. The one on my bench seems to work well enough. My ol' trusty Fluke 179 matches it measurement for measurement (well, as far as the digits go on the Fluke) which gives me hope that the Instek may meet its specifications. Physically, it appears to have not been subject to violent abuse and has all of its major components, including the folding bale. There is a small dent on the bottom of the case and there are minor scratches here and there. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I bought this unit for its communication and automation features. I've got the HP 3455A already, but it only talks HP-IB and has a noisy fan (EDIT: and is not supported by sigrok or testController). The Instek  speaks fluent SCPI via USB and is silent. As a bonus, it accepts my Fluke probes without modification and fits nicely on my DMM shelf. I'm very happy with it.

https://www.gwinstek.com/en-IN/products/detail/GDM-8251A

[tggzzz]

Ok for science I just tried mixing the two together unsuccessfully. Messy and looks and tastes like ass.

And all in the best possible taste....Kenny Everett

Welp... there's 90 seconds of my life I'll never get back... I think I'd rather have taste-tested the vodka-Nutella ass-butter... 

mnem
*starts writing up a bill for services rendered*

Kenny Everett was a comic genius, really using TV to its full extent. That Cupid Stunt quote "all done in the best possible taste" has become a meme.

That was mostly dwagon tongue-in-cheek... tho I have to admit, I've never had the same appreciation for comedy that revolves around guys in drag as seems endemic to Brits. 

Maybe it has to do with "queer" always being pretty much a "Who fucking cares...?" thing for me as I grew up half the time on a farm and half in the city, so never really got too rooted in either mindset.

In fact, that situation made it much easier for me to look at a lot of the "social norms" in either scenario with a more analytical attitude, and I realized at a young age how ridiculous so many of the "little personal repressions" we take for granted as required social lubricant really are. 

mnem
 

Cupid Stunt was merely one of dozens of caricature characters he had, e.g. a mime, gospel preachers/singers with 3ft long fingers, a general with shoulders 2m wide, and many others. There might or might not be one segment like that in a show.

[Specmaster]

But thanks for taking the time to try and explain it to your poor uncultured 'merkin cousin.

Ahh, that's not true. You guys have got lots of culture: Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Escherichia, ... 

Time to hit the sack, my eyelids are drooping. And to think once upon a time at this time on a Friday night I'd be one saying "Na, let's not go home yet. The night is young".

Wow, for once, I actually beat you in hitting the sack 

[tggzzz]

I don't remember seeing a more inept fleabay posting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393432768713

[bd139]

That is indeed impressively bad. 

[Specmaster]

1st rule when posting, is to check your supporting photos 

[med6753]

1st rule when posting, is to check your supporting photos 

At least it's not one of those "accidentally caught my naked large beer belly almost hiding my dick reflection pictures".   

[Specmaster]

1st rule when posting, is to check your supporting photos 

At least it's not one of those "accidentally caught my naked large beer belly almost hiding my dick reflection pictures".   

You've been peeping again......