Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[vk6zgo]

Oh remember to never let me do work drinks again 

I still remember that night when I was vomiting schotch whiskey. I was working/testing cars in Death Valley, CA.
The next morning I was 100% back online... no hang over..... 

Yes, working trips / evening are dangerous.

I think I have referred to my adventures with Scotch before.

Many years back, a workmate & I drunk Scotch with a beer chaser all night till closing time in Wyndham, Western Australia (a "cow town" in the Tropical North of the State).

When the Sun burnt me out of bed next morning, I felt a bit seedy, but not that bad------until I started peeing blood!!
Luckily, the effect was only temporary.

[BU508A]

Biggest problem is that being of dwagonish bent I prefer to eat the cow, not what the cow eats. The calories involved in stuff that makes the greens palatable quickly add up. 

mnem
and bacon... *ghaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh*

I heard there are vegetarian and even vegan human beings ! It's just a rumor though, never seen one in real life so far.
So, why couldn't there be vegan Dwagons as well ?! It ought to be possible, at least in theory. 

A friend of mine is playing RPG and one of his main characters is a veggie dragon named Cymru. 
He likes carrots most.

[Saskia]

@Robert congratulations on your latest aquisitions.

@med  @mnem

High carb diets actually do not work, but can be extremely detrimental to your health as I can see with Hubby (the docs prescribed him a high carb diet which pushed him into fatty liver, insulin resistance and T2D,

I found the following video pretty insightful:
https://youtu.be/LRHir1k9jmE

His other videos are interesting, as well, however I think the one above explains it quite well.

So when you want to shed weight, insulin is your enemy, and insulin resistance is the reason you may end up as a T2D without realising it.

I also find the videos of Dr. Sten Ekbert quite reasonable, even though he from time to time gets things a bit wrong. Overall however his line of thinking is conclusive.

So where does it lead me in terms of dietary suggestions:
- cut out carbs as much as possible.
- eat sufficient protein (1.6grams per kg of body mass, less if you have chronic kidney disease, check with your nephrologist)
- cut out seed oils and hibernation food
- don't cheat and do the accompanying blood work.
Measure: fasting blood sugar, blood sugar before, 1h and 2h past a meal
fasting insuline
ketones.

Ketones indicate whether you are burning fat. The nutritional ketosis range is from 0.5 -3 mmol/l and it can be measured by a blood ketone meter.

Now, there is no blood insulin meter around. I will inquire if my employer would consider that a viable idea for implementation. I certainly see market potential for this as it could easily be used to supervise a keto diet to reverse insulin resistance.
I'll probably do the elevator pitch on Monday ...

[shakalnokturn]

So when you want to shed weight, insulin is your enemy, and insulin resistance is the reason you may end up as a T2D without realising it.

I thought that T2D basically was insulin resistance, I wouldn't have said insulin is your enemy when wanting to loose weight. Insulin is necessary for the muscles to use the blood sugar as energy, running low on insulin pushes blood sugar levels up while starving the organism for energy, as a side effect you break fats to compensate for the false lack of sugar which leads to ketone poisoning.
As for diet, from my experience on limiting sugar peaks I'd definitely say that limiting the carbs (without mentioning sugar and fat...) to reasonable amounts and eating fibres in the form of raw vegetables does a lot.
Some physical activity during the day is a must, not overheating the room can help too.

[Saskia]

you cannot live without insulin, that is true. T2D develops from insulin resistance, the official definition is that the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to keep the blood sugar at normal levels. IR when untreated certainly develops into prediabetes and diabetes.

[shakalnokturn]

Vaguely TE and health related:
Metrix multimeter ashtray   
I didn't fall for the 4€ LeCroy mug and I like both mugs and LeCroy so I doubt this one is for me. Vince maybe? 

https://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/2042366426.htm

[mnementh]

@Mnementh, that why I will never go near a flip phone or indeed any device that folds in half as the ribbon invariably gives out at some point. However, in your case I suspect that this cable failed for another reason, namely a gorilla has been in there before you?

Yes, there is a non-zero chance of this being he case as well. 

I know I'm tempting fate... but today's fun will involve both cameras fully dismantled at the same time in hopes of piecing together one working optical assembly. After I get some coffee and eggs in me I'll tackle  the one with the inner objective rattling around loose inside the lens...

mnem

[mnementh]

Status today just to give mnem a licking:

26.5 kgs, 6.5 within the last 2 weeks.
Low carb/ keto with 2 weeks of interruption.
16 km of fat burning walking yesterday, daily calorie burn about 3500 ...

Good on ya! Now you just need to get hubby doing however much rehab his heart condition will permit. It takes very little physical activity to make a big difference in overall blood circulation, which is good for the heart and makes you feel much better in every aspect of your life.

My lower back just at the thought of that much uninterrupted walking. I probably burned that much the day we loaded & unloaded that rental truck... then 3 days popping pain cocktails like M&Ms and Tramadol at night to recover.

We do need to get our shit together and me and the boy back on our weights/biking regimen tho. I am definitely feeling the difference after being off it the last 2 weeks.

mnem
Oy vey...

[mnementh]

Oh remember to never let me do work drinks again 

03.00 and just got home. 99% fucked.  Ended up in Inferno . TE day tomorrow.

You must be getting old. I remember when I'd have called that an early finish, and I suspect you do too. 

The point at which one really can't hack it any more cuts in around 50, when the handovers start to hang around all day.

Yes I remember leaving clubs for the first train. Definitely getting old now 

As for the hangover it’s absolutely horrific and I’m not quite 50 yet

6 oz gatorade
6 oz milk
6 oz V-8
1 banana

Blender to drinkable consistency. Do not add egg. ever. Optionally, add 1 bag of salted peanuts if you can stand the smell while its blending; it may make you hurl again. This may be a good thing. 

Pinch nose and chug; it tastes like sweet ass. If you're lucky it will shortly prompt a BM and you'll feel better almost instantly. Otherwise, give it a hour (and lots of burps) and you'll be starving and ready to pull the ears off a Gondar.

I used to put the ingredients in my "change of clothes bag" for Margarita night. Never once regretted the extra weight.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

I don't know what the modern ones are like, but the old one I picked up (and flipped) had far too many skeleton pots for my comfort.

Quite. Trimpots are the work of the devil. I go out of my way when designing things to design out the need for them. Electronic, closed case, calibration/alignment is the only way to go to keep your sanity. I've worked on too many things where tweaking pot A alters the thing you have to trim with pot B, and tweaking pot B alters the thing you have to trim with pot A. That kind of iterative insanity is what computers where made for.

[Saskia]

Oh remember to never let me do work drinks again 

03.00 and just got home. 99% fucked.  Ended up in Inferno . TE day tomorrow.

You must be getting old. I remember when I'd have called that an early finish, and I suspect you do too. 

The point at which one really can't hack it any more cuts in around 50, when the handovers start to hang around all day.

Yes I remember leaving clubs for the first train. Definitely getting old now 

As for the hangover it’s absolutely horrific and I’m not quite 50 yet

6 oz gatorade
6 oz milk
6 oz V-8
1 banana

Blender to drinkable consistency. Do not add egg. ever. Optionally, add 1 bag of salted peanuts if you can stand the smell while its blending; it may make you hurl again. This may be a good thing. 

Pinch nose and chug; it tastes like sweet ass. If you're lucky it will shortly prompt a BM and you'll feel better almost instantly. Otherwise, give it a hour (and lots of burps) and you'll be starving and ready to pull the ears off a Gondar.

I used to put the ingredients in my "change of clothes bag" for Margarita night. Never once regretted the extra weight.

mnem
 

6 cl Herradura reposado
3 cl Cointreau
5 cl freshly squeezed lime juice
5 tspoon cane sugar sirup
handful of frozen strawberries
blend and serve in a Margarita cocktail glass.

[Cerebus]

6 oz gatorade
6 oz milk
6 oz V-8
1 banana

Blender to drinkable consistency. Do not add egg. ever. Optionally, add 1 bag of salted peanuts if you can stand the smell while its blending; it may make you hurl again. This may be a good thing. 

Pinch nose and chug; it tastes like sweet ass. If you're lucky it will shortly prompt a BM and you'll feel better almost instantly. Otherwise, give it a hour (and lots of burps) and you'll be starving and ready to pull the ears off a Gondar.

Och man, ye're doing it all wrong. Irn Bru and a Mars Bar. Battering and deep frying the mars bar is optional.

[SilverSolder]

I don't know what the modern ones are like, but the old one I picked up (and flipped) had far too many skeleton pots for my comfort.

Quite. Trimpots are the work of the devil. I go out of my way when designing things to design out the need for them. Electronic, closed case, calibration/alignment is the only way to go to keep your sanity. I've worked on too many things where tweaking pot A alters the thing you have to trim with pot B, and tweaking pot B alters the thing you have to trim with pot A. That kind of iterative insanity is what computers where made for.

If you've ever tried adjusting convergence on an old school CRT colour TV, you will know the definition of "iterative insanity"! 

[Cerebus]

If you've ever tried adjusting convergence on an old school CRT colour TV, you will know the definition of "iterative insanity"! 

I have. That is exactly the kind of experience I'm talking about. You over-tweak one just too far and you're back at the beginning.

[mnementh]

Urrrrggghhh... what have I just volunteered for fresh hell is this...? 

If you watch.... mute it lest the elektronika/porn video background music damage some important synapses, turning you into Hannibal Lechter...

mnem
I think I may just put these in this little box over here, and forget aboot them for a while...

I dropped my Sony RX 100 III camera, 2nd hand market price at that time 500 €, and the front lens part was pushed back into the zoom mechanics, heavily tilted.
As a first reflex I bought a complete zoom objective lens module for 60 € from China.

THEN I watched the yt videos on changing the objective. 

Long story short: A local camera service company was able to repair the original objective for 120 € including sensor and camera cleaning etc., I sold my spare part for 50 Euro, and now I have a fully working camera with 1 year repair warranty.

With a market price of 20 $ it would have been a nice adventure.
Good luck!   

Actually, dismantling the camera down to the optical assembly was a cakewalk; everything very straightforward and no really hidden fasteners aside from one snap in the outer cover. It is the optical assembly itself which gives me the heebee-jeebees. 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002393124219.html

The optical assembly is available complete with & without CCD; if I can't get it going with my own tinkery skills, I may actually splurge the US$50-ish on one. My only worry is that at least with trying to fix the ones I have, I know I'm getting Canon quality. AliEx is of course a crapshoot.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Well its been a whole week since I purchased that 2nd Fluke 85 on eBay, and it was marked down as being dispatched the same day. Estimated date of delivery was shown as being 16th Sept and nothing has been received. I emailed the seller yesterday asking if they got proof of posting and no reply back from them. So today I have filed a claim with eBay, let's wait and see what happens. 

[Brumby]

I know I'm tempting fate... but today's fun will involve both cameras fully dismantled at the same time in hopes of piecing together one working optical assembly. After I get some coffee and eggs in me I'll tackle  the one with the inner objective rattling around loose inside the lens...

Tempting fate, Murphy and that little voice (which you usually try to ignore) is silent ... except for some quiet, nervous  whimpering.


See you on the other side!

[mnementh]

@Robert congratulations on your latest aquisitions.

@med  @mnem

High carb diets actually do not work, but can be extremely detrimental to your health as I can see with Hubby (the docs prescribed him a high carb diet which pushed him into fatty liver, insulin resistance and T2D,

I found the following video pretty insightful:
https://youtu.be/LRHir1k9jmE

His other videos are interesting, as well, however I think the one above explains it quite well.

So when you want to shed weight, insulin is your enemy, and insulin resistance is the reason you may end up as a T2D without realising it.

I also find the videos of Dr. Sten Ekbert quite reasonable, even though he from time to time gets things a bit wrong. Overall however his line of thinking is conclusive.

So where does it lead me in terms of dietary suggestions:
- cut out carbs as much as possible.
- eat sufficient protein (1.6grams per kg of body mass, less if you have chronic kidney disease, check with your nephrologist)
- cut out seed oils and hibernation food
- don't cheat and do the accompanying blood work.
Measure: fasting blood sugar, blood sugar before, 1h and 2h past a meal
fasting insuline
ketones.

Ketones indicate whether you are burning fat. The nutritional ketosis range is from 0.5 -3 mmol/l and it can be measured by a blood ketone meter.

Now, there is no blood insulin meter around. I will inquire if my employer would consider that a viable idea for implementation. I certainly see market potential for this as it could easily be used to supervise a keto diet to reverse insulin resistance.
I'll probably do the elevator pitch on Monday ...

I've known that a high carb diet is not good for decades... personally, I think the US RDA of ~200-300 grams is ridiculously high, even for a normal healthy adult. Even for a teenager, honestly.

What I'm talking aboot is just a little more carbs than the hard keto weight-loss diet I'm used to of 20-30 grams (last time I did it I went down to 10-20 after I got down to 100kg); more like 50-80 grams and counting caloriesso I can still get necessary fiber in my diet. At least, this is what I'm experimenting with ATM.

The big problem for me is trying to keep active enough to promote normal peristalsis while having a limited amount of verticalness to spend on a day's activities before I start to degrade into "old man bumbling around with a cane" level of functionality.

I do blood sugar 3x a day for a week every few months to make sure I'm still on the right side of the AOD line; more frequently is not really feasible as I am paying for all my supplies out of pocket in a nation where such things are regulated to a ridiculous extent. Things will change once we are no longer "outside the system" here.

If you pay attention to what your body is telling you, you can tell pretty well if you're overindulging. In my case, if I fall off the wagon for more than a day or two, I'll wake up hung over and start to develop edema. If I really don't listen, I'll get all-day headaches from hyperinsulinism/low blood sugar. As with everything, the older you get the more of an uphill battle it is.

mnem
But that's no excuse for just giving up.   

[Neper]

If you've ever tried adjusting convergence on an old school CRT colour TV, you will know the definition of "iterative insanity"! 

...in a cloud of ozone emanating from the HV cage of a Philips K7 chassis.

[mnementh]

Oh remember to never let me do work drinks again 

03.00 and just got home. 99% fucked.  Ended up in Inferno . TE day tomorrow.

You must be getting old. I remember when I'd have called that an early finish, and I suspect you do too. 

The point at which one really can't hack it any more cuts in around 50, when the handovers start to hang around all day.

Yes I remember leaving clubs for the first train. Definitely getting old now 

As for the hangover it’s absolutely horrific and I’m not quite 50 yet

6 oz gatorade
6 oz milk
6 oz V-8
1 banana

Blender to drinkable consistency. Do not add egg. ever. Optionally, add 1 bag of salted peanuts if you can stand the smell while its blending; it may make you hurl again. This may be a good thing. 

Pinch nose and chug; it tastes like sweet ass. If you're lucky it will shortly prompt a BM and you'll feel better almost instantly. Otherwise, give it a hour (and lots of burps) and you'll be starving and ready to pull the ears off a Gondar.

I used to put the ingredients in my "change of clothes bag" for Margarita night. Never once regretted the extra weight.

mnem
 

6 cl Herradura reposado
3 cl Cointreau
5 cl freshly squeezed lime juice
5 tspoon cane sugar sirup
handful of frozen strawberries
blend and serve in a Margarita cocktail glass.

That just smells like a master class in recursion... Margarita night, hangover remedy, even more powerful margaritas, even more hangover remedy...

And honestly, I only ever drank Margaritas socially; I hate them as they taste like ass and battery acid to me. I'd nurse one or two along until my friends were drunk enough they didn't care that I'd switched to Bourbon & Rocks/Rum & Coke/Bloody Marys.

I used to love Piña Coladas, but they hate me the same way beer does. Too much sugar, gives me a headache & makes me a mean drunk. Then I wake up in all sorts of wrong places feeling totes 

mnem

[mnementh]

Biggest problem is that being of dwagonish bent I prefer to eat the cow, not what the cow eats. The calories involved in stuff that makes the greens palatable quickly add up. 

mnem
and bacon... *ghaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh*

I heard there are vegetarian and even vegan human beings ! It's just a rumor though, never seen one in real life so far.
So, why couldn't there be vegan Dwagons as well ?! It ought to be possible, at least in theory. 

A friend of mine is playing RPG and one of his main characters is a veggie dragon named Cymru. 
He likes carrots most.

I assume he's a proper Welsh Red...? 

mnem
There's nothing wrong with vegetarians; they're delicious with a little Worcestershire sauce...

[Robert763]

Decided to fix the broken terminal on the scrapyard Time 1010 Voltage calibrator. I don’t have the correct shrouded plug compatible binding post so decided to move the case ground one to the broken 0V output position and replace the ground one with a standard green binding post.
I took some internal photos while I was in there. The inspection stamp is dated 2015 so it’s not very old. You can see that there is a bare wire looped around the insulator to ground the panel.
The reference an amplifier PCB has been dipped in black epoxy. This is typical of Time.
The decade voltage setting switches are wired as a simple decade resistor. Interestingly the lowest decade is just a piece of resistance wire wound through the holes in the switch PCB.
So al back together and went and put it on the 34970A in 61/2 digit mode, All good until I set 9V and got just 4V 
A quick check showed it went to 999,99mV so not the decade resistor. The thing won’t go above 4.6V output, but was fine yesterday.
So checking around showed the power supply voltages look OK. There is one electrolytic  (blue) on the main PCB. Investigation showed this is connected the output. There is a 250mA fuse in series with the output. There seemed to be a bit of a high voltage drop across this fuse, rising to about half a volt when the output was set above 5V.  Obviously I went to check the capacitor. It read about 78 Ohms either polarity with the board disconnected from the battery pack. I was about to pull it from the board but as a check I put the three position output reversing switch on the “off” position. The capacitor read open circuit. That’s odd. Checking resistance at the output terminals it was 78 Ohms in positive or negative positions and short in the off positions.  The short is expected, the Time units use a DPDT ON-ON-ON output switch wired to short the terminals and open the connections to the voltage source in the off position.
So I set 8V and measured the voltage across the capacitor. With the switch in positive or negative there was 4.6V across the capacitor and 8V in the off position.  During further investigation the measured resistance went up to 135 Ohms and then open circuit. At this point the unit started working.  The switch isn’t sealed so I worked some switch cleaner into it and could not fault it further.  Stuck it all back together and it is working fine.
I can only think there was a bit of dirt in the switch. If it plays up again I’ll change it. The one fitted is a Eledis 1A26. The Eledis data sheet has an error, It says it’s an ON-ON-ON switch but the connection table says the middle position is OPEN which of course would be an ON-OFF-ON 3 position switch. Anyway £3 and a couple of hours work isn’t bad. It looks a tad out on the 10V range but is in spec so I’m not touching it.

[mnementh]

6 oz gatorade
6 oz milk
6 oz V-8
1 banana

Blender to drinkable consistency. Do not add egg. ever. Optionally, add 1 bag of salted peanuts if you can stand the smell while its blending; it may make you hurl again. This may be a good thing. 

Pinch nose and chug; it tastes like sweet ass. If you're lucky it will shortly prompt a BM and you'll feel better almost instantly. Otherwise, give it a hour (and lots of burps) and you'll be starving and ready to pull the ears off a Gondar.

Och man, ye're doing it all wrong. Irn Bru and a Mars Bar. Battering and deep frying the mars bar is optional.

Overview

Irn-Bru is known for its bright orange colour and unique flavour.[2] As of 1999 it contained 0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate, sugar, 32 flavouring agents including caffeine and quinine (but not in Australia), and two controversial colourings (Sunset Yellow FCF E110 and Ponceau 4R E124). On 27 January 2010, soft-drink manufacturer A.G. Barr agreed to a Food Standards Agency voluntary ban on these two colourings although no date was set for their replacement.[3] After lobbying by First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, a proposed restriction of Sunset Yellow to 10 mg/litre was eased to 20 mg/litre in 2011 – the same amount present in Irn-Bru.[4] As of August 2021, Irn-Bru still contains these colourings.[5]

I find this beverage highly suspect. Might be good mixed with Tito's, tho. 

*makes mental note to add said toxic ichor to his next recreational beverage shopping list*

mnem

[mnementh]

If you've ever tried adjusting convergence on an old school CRT colour TV, you will know the definition of "iterative insanity"! 

I have. That is exactly the kind of experience I'm talking about. You over-tweak one just too far and you're back at the beginning.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You simply have not lived until you've done survived the unholy convergence rituals necessary on a old Pioneer or Hitachi CRT projection set with analog panel. 

mnem
*speaks soothingly to the PTSD dwagon juddering in the deepest recesses of the tinkerdwagon's memories*
"there, there.... it's okay.... we'll never, ever have to do that again... we promise..."

[med6753]

If you've ever tried adjusting convergence on an old school CRT colour TV, you will know the definition of "iterative insanity"! 

...in a cloud of ozone emanating from the HV cage of a Philips K7 chassis.

I fell into that trap once.....on a Heathkit color TV. Never again.