Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

So how come I think the lamp made of auto parts is super cool yet a lamp made of an old and obsolete AVO meter is sacrilege? 

Rational explanation welcome because I don't have one. 

One is the destruction of a classic design, the other involves something with too many wheels and too few wings.

[tggzzz]

Printers deserve their own tier in Hell. Period.

Plotters are hypnotic to watch. Most people get fixated when they are drawing block colour or characters from non-stroked fonts.

[Specmaster]

The first car I ever really delved into was an early 1950s Singer SM1500-----this was amazingly "high tech" for the period, with its overhead camshaft.

Urgh. My father had one of those. First car I ever rode in. I remember it as horrible and was greatly pleased when he got rid of it and got a Hillman Imp which we had for years. When the Hillman Imp finally went to its grave he got a Simca 1100. Bloody horrible car. Everything that was good about the Imp was bad on the Simca, everything that the Simca ought to have done better than the Imp it didn't. Ten years later there was no sign of the marque in the UK and I'm not bloody surprised.

I used to have, my first car it was too, a Hillman Minx Series II which had column mounted gear lever and bench seats and then petrol was cheap, 3 gallons for £1 and top speed of 76mph which was fast enough considering cars then had no seat belts and brakes were nowhere as good as they are now. I remember even giving it a full respray in my uncle's garage in Finchley and to help it cope with early morning cold starts in winter as I would be on the early shift at the local bus depot and in those days winters were harsh. I fitted it with a second battery, mounted on top of the hump in the boot floor for the rear live axle, and secured it to the steel rear bulkhead behind the rear seat. It never ever let me down, that was a good car, I parted with it when I got my second car, a gorgeous Vanden Plas Princess 3 Litre which used to be chauffeur driven, picking up directors and important clients of Peek and Freans, the biscuit manufacturers in Park Royal, a lovely low mileage car it was.

But the Imp, I remember them as being hateful little cars with an alloy rear mounted engine with little access for maintenance and had a reputation for overheating and blowing core plugs due to inadequate airflow to the engine?

[Specmaster]

So how come I think the lamp made of auto parts is super cool yet a lamp made of an old and obsolete AVO meter is sacrilege? 

Rational explanation welcome because I don't have one. 

How about if that lamp was made out of an old and obsolete Simpson meter then?

[med6753]

So how come I think the lamp made of auto parts is super cool yet a lamp made of an old and obsolete AVO meter is sacrilege? 

Rational explanation welcome because I don't have one. 

How about if that lamp was made out of an old and obsolete Simpson meter then?

I know you think I'm dissing AVO meters. I'm not. If it were an obsolete Simpson meter the question would be the same.

But your tea still sucks and belongs in the harbor. 

[dl6lr]

Plotters are hypnotic to watch. Most people get fixated when they are drawing block colour or characters from non-stroked fonts.

Can confirm this. I built a Lorenz attractor circuit (in fact two) to drive a XY-recorder on the Hannover Makerfaire in 2019. That seemed to be magnetic to a lot of people. One young lady watched it for apparently quarter an hour.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/1VXPSJJqAHhCvnAZA

I gave away the paper charts for visitors every hour or so.

See it in action here at the start, with the second, faster one using the Knott display to the right of it: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ncxbd42rruVudCyV7

With the HP pen plotter Martin.M made hard copies of the HP scope at the right end of the table.

The LED panel controller seen in the vid was built by madao.

[Neper]

When the Hillman Imp finally went to its grave he got a Simca 1100. Bloody horrible car. Everything that was good about the Imp was bad on the Simca, everything that the Simca ought to have done better than the Imp it didn't. Ten years later there was no sign of the marque in the UK and I'm not bloody surprised.

Simca went by the name of Talbot by then.

[BU508A]

Wow, that was a long trip!
I've sent on July 31st a little air cushion envelope to Down Under, containing a 4.875MHz crystal and two Bob Widlar memorial OpAmps (uA709). It arrived on Sept. 21st!

Last time I did something similar it took 10 days to arrive.

[Neper]

mode = ON
Have spammers nothing better to do than  my inbox ? 
7 in 24 hrs FFS !
  = OFF 

Be glad it's just email spam.

We're getting an average of three phone calls per day from some non-existent "Windows service department", a supposedly Indian scam operation, by the accent of those calling, trying to make you believe there's something wrong with your computer and they can fix it if you grant them TeamViewer access to your system and give them your credit card number. 

It's always the same pattern: an incoming call with a very long number, a few seconds of silence after you pick up, followed by some odd noise ("krrronnk") and an eminently Indian-accented "Hellooo" with lots of call-centre noise in the background. Just hanging up or swearing at them doesn't help because they're quite insistent and they'll call again in an hour.

But we've found a way to get rid of them. Just wait for the "Hellooo" and then immediately answer with "Hello and welcome to the gay and lesbian helpline. Do your family know that you are gay?" We've never before had them hang up so quickly and it usually gives us some peace and quiet for the rest of the day.

[Robert763]

When the Hillman Imp finally went to its grave he got a Simca 1100. Bloody horrible car. Everything that was good about the Imp was bad on the Simca, everything that the Simca ought to have done better than the Imp it didn't. Ten years later there was no sign of the marque in the UK and I'm not bloody surprised.

Simca went by the name of Talbot by then.

The one with the Lotus Twin Cam was OK until they rusted away. Trouble was they started rusting before delivery.

[tautech]

mode = ON
Have spammers nothing better to do than  my inbox ? 
7 in 24 hrs FFS !
  = OFF 

Be glad it's just email spam.

We're getting an average of three phone calls per day from some non-existent "Windows service department", a supposedly Indian scam operation, by the accent of those calling, trying to make you believe there's something wrong with your computer and they can fix it if you grant them TeamViewer access to your system and give them your credit card number. 

It's always the same pattern: an incoming call with a very long number, a few seconds of silence after you pick up, followed by some odd noise ("krrronnk") and an eminently Indian-accented "Hellooo" with lots of call-centre noise in the background. Just hanging up or swearing at them doesn't help because they're quite insistent and they'll call again in an hour.

But we've found a way to get rid of them. Just wait for the "Hellooo" and then immediately answer with "Hello and welcome to the gay and lesbian helpline. Do your family know that you are gay?" We've never before had them hang up so quickly and it usually gives us some peace and quiet for the rest of the day.

Used to get them here too and would just reply wow that is bad for Windows users but we don't have a PC. 
Calls didn't last much longer after that and gradually they stopped calling those backward people in Taupaki that don't have computers. 

[bd139]

Ahha we have a delivery this morning. Big thanks to BU508A



Also I need to tidy up my desk

[BU508A]

Ahha we have a delivery this morning. Big thanks to BU508A



Also I need to tidy up my desk

Congrats! You won the race!   
Curious, who'll be next: med6753 or cyclin_al   

[mansaxel]

Just received a small envelope with two tubes of IC's, Beiling Shanghai BL3101 and BL3207, admitted clones of the Matsushita MN3101 and MN3207. They're, respectively, clock generators and bucket brigade delays for analog signals,  used together to create an analog delay, most often today with some clock LFO modulation causing  Doppler distortion effects known as "flanger" and "chorus" to the musicians. There is an abundance of borderline cargo cult level "knowledge" on these effects among the "circuit benders", but also in this flood of misunderstandings, cause/effect mixups, beliefs and folklore there can be found solid engineering tips. Currently sorting through all those sources trying to decide which circuit to start with.

This is a winter evening project with the Middle Boy.

[Saskia]

mode = ON
Have spammers nothing better to do than  my inbox ? 
7 in 24 hrs FFS !
  = OFF 

Be glad it's just email spam.

We're getting an average of three phone calls per day from some non-existent "Windows service department", a supposedly Indian scam operation, by the accent of those calling, trying to make you believe there's something wrong with your computer and they can fix it if you grant them TeamViewer access to your system and give them your credit card number. 

It's always the same pattern: an incoming call with a very long number, a few seconds of silence after you pick up, followed by some odd noise ("krrronnk") and an eminently Indian-accented "Hellooo" with lots of call-centre noise in the background. Just hanging up or swearing at them doesn't help because they're quite insistent and they'll call again in an hour.

But we've found a way to get rid of them. Just wait for the "Hellooo" and then immediately answer with "Hello and welcome to the gay and lesbian helpline. Do your family know that you are gay?" We've never before had them hang up so quickly and it usually gives us some peace and quiet for the rest of the day.

let them connect to a virtual machine, download ransomware to their systems, get their geo location, upload it to the Predator targeting system and send them a Hellfire.

[shakalnokturn]

Ahha we have a delivery this morning. Big thanks to BU508A



Also I need to tidy up my desk

That's a very tidy desk by my standards.
Is there even anything happening there?

[med6753]

Ahha we have a delivery this morning. Big thanks to BU508A



Also I need to tidy up my desk

Congrats! You won the race!   
Curious, who'll be next: med6753 or cyclin_al   

Mine hasn't been updated since the 17th still in Frankfurt. 

[BU508A]

Ahha we have a delivery this morning. Big thanks to BU508A



Also I need to tidy up my desk

Congrats! You won the race!   
Curious, who'll be next: med6753 or cyclin_al   

Mine hasn't been updated since the 17th still in Frankfurt. 

Have you tried to enter your tracking ID here?
I think (hope), DHL handed it over to USPS.

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction

[Vince]

Oh no....... ohhhhh...... noooooooooo.... I did it AGAIN ! 

Remember just a few days ago I talked about this horrible Gould 1604 scope that drove me nuts when I fixed it a year ago ? How I said it was a horrible experience that brought many grey hair, and how I promised myself I would never, ever buy a Gould scope again ?.....

Some time ago, I had a Gould scope in my stash:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/show-your-strangest-crappiest-piece-of-te/msg1807304/#msg1807304

I don't have it anymore, but there might exist one more where it came from, might have been scrapped in the meantime, don't know. In case you're interested, I'll have a look tomorrow if it's still there and silently take it away for you (no one will ever miss it).

Since this Gould scope topic appeared here, I'm suffering from bouts of guilt. As a young practicioner with a less developed taste in instruments, I made a company, which had contracted me as support for an industrial project, buy such a thing. I left soon after and they were stuck with it .

That's OK Neomys, you were young and inexperienced, we all have to learn... as long as you contact this company to apologize, and send them chocolates for X-mas 'til the end of times...

[mnementh]

So how come I think the lamp made of auto parts is super cool yet a lamp made of an old and obsolete AVO meter is sacrilege? 

Rational explanation welcome because I don't have one. 

That’ll be because the auto parts lamp is now greater than the sum of its parts while the Avo lamp is now less than the sum of its parts.

From a philosophical point of view I suppose one is art and the other is 💩

There’s also something horrible about taking an object which has had effort and design put into it and removing its purpose entirely. Prompts an uncomfortable visceral reaction to anyone who sees purpose in it.

I have a lifelong interest in both disciplines, and I'm sorry, but they're both Etsy 💩 .

The distributor with one wire is like... the antithesis of its purpose; you need precisely zero distributors to feed one wire.  Yet the fan pulley at the bottom has a full set of plugs, which makes it pretty obvious that the "artist" tried it with a full set of wires, and decided it looked too cluttered. Probably because he/she/it had precisely zero clue aboot how to properly dress a set of spark plugs wires so it looked tidy.

And don't even get me started on the free-floating air filter with no air cleaner. The juxtaposition of that fuel-system part with the rest of the thing being ignition system isn't clever; it literally looks like they just threw it on there. Which they did. It gives me free-floating anxiety wishing for the opportunity to throttle the "artist" with a fanbelt.

Still art...? Hardly. More like stillbirth. 

mnem
*putt... putt... putta-putt...*

[Vince]

Ahha we have a delivery this morning. Big thanks to BU508A



Also I need to tidy up my desk

That's a very tidy desk by my standards.
Is there even anything happening there?

Don't worry, this is not its normal state. If it looks tidy it's merely because the other day he spent half a day clearing his desk, room, of half a ton of stuff that was covering the desk and keep him from even accessing that desk, had to walk over stuff to just grab his chair...... he cleaned all that stuff just so that he could take a nice pic of his work environment for us to see.  But I am sure as weeks go by, it will progressively come back to its previous, natural, clusterfuck state. Have I got that right BD ?? 

[Vince]

[..] Medical stuff, was that the hobby you had in mind Bryce  ?

No actually, vintage computers. There were several printers / plotters such as the Atari 1020 that used the same pens. They are often on offer on retro computer sites. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_1020
The original Atari pens were made of metal and the top can be popped off and re-filled.

McBryce.

P.s. Where's the close-up picture??

Oh interesting ! Yes if you know of another source for these pens, please share !

Piccies ? Oops sorry forgot to attach them, a disease of mine !

I edited my message to add the pics, you can scroll back to see them.... well I will attach them here as well for convenience...

Yes, they're the same ones. Here's some I have. These are from 80's Atari and Tandy printers, so there should be quite a few sources in the US for these. You can carefully pull the tip out of the metal barrel and refill these as often as you want.

McBryce.

Oh wow, indeed they are 100% the same pens, thanks for that !  

Importing them from the US might be very costly though, I guess. If you know of a source in Germany or Europe, please share ! 
In the meantime I will take note of what you said, and will start searching for these pens once I get round to fixing this scope...

[mnementh]

That’ll be because the auto parts lamp is now greater than the sum of its parts while the Avo lamp is now less than the sum of its parts.

From a philosophical point of view I suppose one is art and the other is 💩

There’s also something horrible about taking an object which has had effort and design put into it and removing its purpose entirely. Prompts an uncomfortable visceral reaction to anyone who sees purpose in it.

Decide yourself....   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettecke

Ahh that’s another form of art: Taking the piss.

Clearly he could be taking the piss here and simply through reputation and anticipation trolling everyone while making a ton of money. The art is increasing your reputation by doing something trivial or obscure. The application of a hat builds credibility. This is the art us software engineers have and occasionally I wear a hat 

Either that or drugs and the gallery was just lucky that day they had some butter around instead of some readily available bodily solids or liquids.

   https://xkcd.com/958/


The longer I know you, the more and more certain I become that Randall Munroe knows you personally...

mnem
"You can't cheat a man who doesn't already have larceny on his mind." ~grand-dad

[GreyWoolfe]

Eutectic alloys like 63/37 have a solidus/liquidus temp that is very nearly the same.

You know the most intriguing words. 

Since it appears we have some experts around here, is there a limit to the shelf life of 60/40 and ROHS solder? I've bought a life supply of both, some years ago. Just wondering...

By far not an expert.  I bought a roll of 60/40 in the late 90's when I was attending ITT Technical Institute.  I just finished the roll a couple of years ago.  Never had an issue with the solder and I was using it to solder PL-259 connectors on coax up until I ran out.  I kept it mainly for that as I switched to a thinner diameter of 63/37 for use on the bench.  Hope this helps.

[BU508A]

Importing them from the US might be very costly though, I guess. If you know of a source in Germany or Europe, please share ! 
In the meantime I will take note of what you said, and will start searching for these pens once I get round to fixing this scope...

Pens for the Atari 1020:
http://plotterstifte-faserschreibfedern.de/K5208-Medizinschreiber-4er-Paket