Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

I gather the 'excursion totale' is the maximum frequency deviation of the wobulator.

Yes you were right ! Now that Robert just explained to me what a "Wobulator" was/meant in the first place, it all makes sense ! 

Hell I can't get myself to put this thing in storage just now.. can't resist the temptation to conduct a few tests to see if I can get a signal ouf of any of the connector, and it see if I can get the built-in scope to display some waveform supplied by me. But that means risking being zapped and possibiy dying, that would be bad... I guess I will just put rubber gloves on  !

As to Le Nord, you appear to be caught in the usual misconceptions of all those people who have never got beyond Germinal and Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. Which is a good thing, in a way, because it keeps things less crowded. Even Bergues has returned to being a nice little town, now the tourists go elsewhere again.

Nope, No Germinal for me and as for the Ch'tit, never seen that movie, I don't like movies that much especially the French ones which all suck big time !  There were some good ones in the '80s but the '80's was a long time ago now.....   

Also, I was BORN up there, so I cna talk !    Well, a bit south of your North... was born in Picardie, in Noyon. But same situation as the 59. I left that region aged 3 when my parents moved to Angers in Loire Valley, where life is so pleasing, but my dad of course spent the first 35 years of his life in Picardie.. even HE keeps saying "fuck me I am out of here !!!! ". He left for the Loire Valley with ZERO regret what so ever ! 

[BU508A]

Those damned interlocking fork 'edge' connectors suggest Fluke, too - hate those fucking things - can't find extender cards for them.

And that was exactly the reason why I've bought this thing. 
Now I do have parts to build nine riser extender cards. I'm planning to sell some of those parts so that one can build a riser card by himself.
Will post then a heads up here.

Let me know, if I should reserve some of them for you.

[Vince]

You mean the dull/mat light grey finish, in contrast with the shiny chromed handle bars and toggle switches ?

Well I mean the finish on the plates inside, like the snippet attached. 

Ah OK I misunderstood then sorry ! 

[Specmaster]

Gah, fecking internet is on the blink yet, bleeding Virginmedia, their M350 service keep going down ever since I cancelled their M500 service, I have almost nightly outages and I'm getting a bit pissed with them, anyone know of another service that offer 300Mb service or better for around £50?

I'm currently looking to ditch VM/Telewest/Blueyonder, since there is now FTTP outside my house and as far as I can tell they will poke a fibre into my house.

Problem is I also want landline, just because I'm a belt-and-braces pessimist. Previously I had a BT landline and ISDN(!) connection, but the wires have been disconnected from the other pole outside my house.

BT indicates they can give me a much cheaper price than VM. But I'd prefer Andrews and Arnold or Zen.

So investigations continue, but are paying second fiddle to Deeds of Variation and IHT400. If you don't have a clue what those are, consider yourself lucky.

@tggzz: Go Zen. I wouldn't bother with a land line unless you really need it. The issue is they are now terminated at the same box in the street as your FTTP so there are no redundancy benefits. It's way past pessimism. If the power goes, your comms do. Buy a 3m HT and get to know the locals (only joking  ). Good luck with the nightmare on your hands - I know exactly what those are unfortunately.

You're probably better with a basic 4g phone (nokia lump) and a SIM now for reliability. Our local service here has been down a lot less time than the land line, which was chopped in half by some wankers with a hedge trimmer.

@Specmaster - 300 meg on Zen is £49 a month and it actually works properly and you get a router that isn't a complete sack of shit.

I checked on Zen, that 300meg works out @ 150Mbs minimum download and 47Mbs upload, I think that the 500meg service is best with minimum 250Mbs download and 70Mbs up load @ £57 a month, I'm currently getting 350Mbs download when it stays up.

[nixiefreqq]

someone should recruit this guy.


https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-scandalous-history-of-the-last-rotor-cipher-machine/particle-1


or maybe he is here already?  (but encrypted....we may never know)

might be him https://www.eevblog.com/forum/profile/?u=93857 

Scrolling through his post list, yes, it is him - he mentions and links to the IEE Spectrum article.

-Pat

whew!  thanks.  was afraid i might have ratted him out.

oh crap!  his most recent post is about the physical properties of solder.  apologize in advance if i started up the solder wars again.

[Vince]

OK so it can do FM then...

Not quite. Its frequency can be swept, usually at a rate of 5 to 10 Hz.

Oh you know these things too ? Well great, you can never have enough helping hand I guess !

I guess I shall see how this thing behaves once I know how to operate it so I can test it...
I am thinking / fearing I might need more than the one supplied cable to wire up the instrument properly...

Need to search for the user manual as I am extremely unfamiliar with the operation of these things.... 

[Vince]

I do like the Tektronix mug, even if we don't use mugs all that much over here. Certainly never had one in my life, and I am 44... so clearly not an essential part of life here !

I'm having some more of those mugs, if you want one. 
EUR 15.- plus shipping to France. 

Don't tempt me ! I said I don't use mugs here ! 

What the hell would I do with a mug when I never use one..... put crayons and metcal iron tips in it ?! 

[Cerebus]

Problem is I also want landline, just because I'm a belt-and-braces pessimist. Previously I had a BT landline and ISDN(!) connection, but the wires have been disconnected from the other pole outside my house.

If you mean a copper landline you are probably out of luck, or will soon be. Openreach has been issuing "stop sell" orders for copper lines on FTTP enabled exchanges 12 months after they have enabled as FTTP in preparation for the complete withdrawal of copper telephony services on 31st December 2025. If they don't get a move on an properly publicise what they're doing a whole lot of shit is going to hit the fan in 4 and a bit year's time. At least one Bristol exchange is on "stop sell" to my certain knowledge.

[BU508A]

I do like the Tektronix mug, even if we don't use mugs all that much over here. Certainly never had one in my life, and I am 44... so clearly not an essential part of life here !

I'm having some more of those mugs, if you want one. 
EUR 15.- plus shipping to France. 

Don't tempt me ! I said I don't use mugs here ! 

What the hell would I do with a mug when I never use one..... put crayons and metcal iron tips in it ?! 

You could put in some pencils, ballpoint pens, soldering tips, an edding 8850 ... 

[Cerebus]

Smart phones won't cut it for me, unfortunately. I'm -110dB in one ear[1] and -80dB in the other. If the better ear gets any worse, I'm elegible for a cochlear implant!

Bloody hell. I knew you were hearing impaired, but I didn't realise it was that much. I think you need a new avatar:


(An old post that resides in a pleasant countryside setting. )

[mansaxel]

Nappy wearers still have to (re)learn that lesson, the hard way.

Liberating that data was both a blessing and a curse in disguise. It put responsibility in the hands of the irresponsible.

This is very true. Both sentences.

• The enthusiastic people have yet to grasp that the cloud is nothing new; it is the Hollerith business model of renting punch card machines to the Census, hook, line and sinker. And they'll be shafted at the till.
• The reckless will be incompetent over and over again.

I believe there is a model for me to deal with my data in this that is neither confined to loss nor bureaux. I'm well aware of the responsibility and the price, and it still makes sense.  What I'm afraid of, and this is happening first in email, is that there will be no technical possibility to coexist with the big ones. They'll lock the rest of us out. And that's bad.

[Cerebus]

someone should recruit this guy.


https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-scandalous-history-of-the-last-rotor-cipher-machine/particle-1


or maybe he is here already?  (but encrypted....we may never know)

might be him https://www.eevblog.com/forum/profile/?u=93857 

It is. I meant to say something earlier but got distracted.

[mansaxel]

Problem is I also want landline,

Landline, as in "copper pairs from the CO", is dead. I run SIP telephony to which I've ported my 6-digit Stockholm number (those are quite rare now, so I'd like to keep it). There's an Asterisk PABX running in a vm locally; it registers to the provider (which, very pointedly, is NOT the same as my ISP nor the fibre company nor my tunnel/colo provider. Always have if not a backup plan, at least a functional separation.) I have several extensions locally, most of them are Snom SIP phones, but I also have a pair of Grandstream ATA boxes, because Grandstream are the only ones who support the proper mathematically sound pulse dial scheme, where 0 has a lower value than 1.

[tggzzz]

Problem is I also want landline, just because I'm a belt-and-braces pessimist. Previously I had a BT landline and ISDN(!) connection, but the wires have been disconnected from the other pole outside my house.

If you mean a copper landline you are probably out of luck, or will soon be. Openreach has been issuing "stop sell" orders for copper lines on FTTP enabled exchanges 12 months after they have enabled as FTTP in preparation for the complete withdrawal of copper telephony services on 31st December 2025. If they don't get a move on an properly publicise what they're doing a whole lot of shit is going to hit the fan in 4 and a bit year's time. At least one Bristol exchange is on "stop sell" to my certain knowledge.

I need my existing phones to continue working. I believe there will be fibre to copper "adaptors"for existing phones, but that some specialised equipment like enfant operate alarms for the elderly will have problems.

Out of curiosity, which exchange is on stop sell?

[Cerebus]

Problem is I also want landline, just because I'm a belt-and-braces pessimist. Previously I had a BT landline and ISDN(!) connection, but the wires have been disconnected from the other pole outside my house.

If you mean a copper landline you are probably out of luck, or will soon be. Openreach has been issuing "stop sell" orders for copper lines on FTTP enabled exchanges 12 months after they have enabled as FTTP in preparation for the complete withdrawal of copper telephony services on 31st December 2025. If they don't get a move on an properly publicise what they're doing a whole lot of shit is going to hit the fan in 4 and a bit year's time. At least one Bristol exchange is on "stop sell" to my certain knowledge.

I need my existing phones to continue working. I believe there will be fibre to copper "adaptors"for existing phones, but that some specialised equipment like enfant operate alarms for the elderly will have problems.

Out of curiosity, which exchange is on stop sell?

Bishopsworth.

[tggzzz]

Smart phones won't cut it for me, unfortunately. I'm -110dB in one ear[1] and -80dB in the other. If the better ear gets any worse, I'm elegible for a cochlear implant!

Bloody hell. I knew you were hearing impaired, but I didn't realise it was that much. I think you need a new avatar:

Let me put it this way: I am very glad that I can now ask strangers to remove their mask when talking to me.

I hate avatars. When forced to use one, I use an old one of me in front of a P1127 (ISTR).

I was surprised to be told I could have a cochlear implant, since I presumed "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". If I eventually get one, people will think I ought to visit Dr Pimple Popper (the implant is 4*50*30mm)

[mnementh]

Today I demanded that some guys not doing their job and piling their stuff on me be fired on the spot.

This is currently escalating ...

Nuke 'em from orbit fire 'em on the spot - it's the only way to be sure ... 

But experience says, that is the one way to ensure everything gets piled on to whoever is left, which is not really the goal.

-- I am not looking for more work, thank you very much

If you show them you're competent enough to do their job as well as you do yours, they'll expect you to do both.

mnem
for your current salary, or even less if they can bludgeon you with threat of "downsizing"...

[mnementh]

In the GWN, the country is officially bilingual, so rotating the jar will reveal the English part of the label.

Really ?! 

Oh didn't know that, that's cool ! 

Here we have more and more stuff that's written in Arabic and / or some incomprehensible eastern Europe language like  Polish or Hungarian or what have you. I guess it costs too much money to make a 100% French label for French stuff.... 

Vince, you are aware that while we are officially subjects of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, these are French colonies, right...? The original 5 colonies were once known known as New France, and included Québec, Hudson's Bay, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Louisiana. These territories were ceded by the French in the Treaty of Paris in 1763 following the Seven Year War. However, the French language is still very much a core part of the cultural identity, as it is with any nation and its descendant colonies.

As a result, pretty much everything here is marked bilingually; not just foods but even buildings and highway signage. Just as in certain regions of Tejas pretty much everything was labeled in both 'merkin English and Mexican Spanish.

It's pretty awesome, actually... I'm learning a dabble of French the same way I learned the little bit of Spanish I know... bumbling around town and just paying attention to labels and signs. 

mnem
Also it's amusing to sometimes see The Queen's English used where I expect 'merkin English.

[vk6zgo]

Apparently not!  Breakfast in Canada:


footnote3:  There is something in the image to keep Vince happy too... 

How kind of you ! 

Not sure what it is though ! I do like the Tektronix mug, even if we don't use mugs all that much over here. Certainly never had one in my life, and I am 44... so clearly not an essential part of life here !

The Peanut butter jar is labelled in French ! How odd... we are not into that stuff here ?! 
Or maybe we are and just have not noticed just yet...
Must be a local / Canadian company making it just for local consumption and labelled it in French to make it more posh and ask more money for it ?! 

Not to worry, I have difficulty finding things directly in front of me.

The jar of "Tartinade de cassis" comes from St. Dalfour, France.
What I find odd is that cassis in French is the black currant only, and cassis in Quebecois is the red currant only.  In English, we differentiate the two currants by colour.

As for edibles, SWMBO and I are into different stuff here.  I assume her culinary interests are more French than the local Quebecois tastes.  I gew up in Ontario, which probably has closer links to the US in diet terms.
Peanut butter is much more of a north american thing in my experience.  In the GWN, the country is officially bilingual, so rotating the jar will reveal the english part of the label.

Peanut butter is also widely consumed in Oz, though some malcontents insist it is "peanut paste".
Call it what you will, combined with Vegemite on wholemeal toast it is delicious!

[mnementh]

BIG TEA moment today... and I mean BIG  as you can see ! 

Another boat anchor... no not a glowing Tek. A glowing Metrix !

...

Just look at this thing !!! 

Good Grief Vince. 

Boat anchor? Holy Shit that thing could hold the Queen Mary in place!   Congrats!

Lordy, Vince... that thing is carrying enough enheavyment to morph into a micro-singularity! You need to get it in a containment field pronto before you have a core meltdown!!! 

mnem
Uhhh... you also might wanna invest in some steel-toed boots. Just sayin'.

[mnementh]

...Well I mean the finish on the plates inside, like the snippet attached. 

That finish is made with a random orbital sander. A staple of any metal fab/auto body shop and now very popular with wood shops that do mirror finishes like Piano Black, it is a variant of the classic DA sander.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

...After 30 minutes playing with the thing, I felt something weird as my fingers were accidentally rubbing against metal parts of the instruments, like the power switch or the million screws that hold the guts of the instrument in place inside the cabinet. I could swear it was like some kind electrical shock ! This things was trying to ZAP me !!!! 

That reminded me of these antique consumer crap cheap radio sets where for some reason they tied the two power leads to the chassis via caps. Caps of course go south after decades, so you get zapped big time.

I though maybe something something similar was going on, and me "waking up" those caps after decades of sleep, might see them die abruptly within seconds or minutes... ie  I could die any moment ! So I pulled the plug and took it apart to see how things were wired in there....

Did you try flipping the polarity of the mains plug to see if the problem went away? Did you try and take a actual voltage measurement at the body of the instrument with reference to that comforting lie we call GND...? Might be a combination of internal and external wiring fault.

mnem

[Vince]

BIG TEA moment today... and I mean BIG  as you can see ! 

Another boat anchor... no not a glowing Tek. A glowing Metrix !

...

Just look at this thing !!! 

Good Grief Vince. 

Boat anchor? Holy Shit that thing could hold the Queen Mary in place!   Congrats!

Lordy, Vince... that thing is carrying enough enheavyment to morph into a micro-singularity! You need to get it in a containment field pronto before you have a core meltdown!!! 

mnem

Meh, no.... it's really not that bad. I would say, eye balling it, that it occupies about the same volume as a full size 500 series Tek scope, but a tiny little bit lighter ! 
The big transformer in this thing is 50% of the weight, I reckon.....

Just put it all back together to reclaim the bench space (now need to find a spot to store it... oh boy...). Then did a quick test of the built-in scope, feeding it with my sig gen. Well good news it does seem to work ! It can display a sine wave and the input attenuator operates.. but of course since it's not a proper triggered time base, signal is all over the shop so my eyes were bleeding.... 
But it works ! 

Then I fired up a scope and probed each and every connector I could find.... not even being sure which is an input or an output, had to test them all.
Result : flat line coming out of all of them. Not a sausage, dead as a dodo, nade, Kaput, mort de chez mort, circulez y a rien à voir !
At this stage I still can't rule out operator incompetence, as it might well be that this thing cannot output a signal unless you use their cable to connect socket A and B together or X and Y or T and D.... to complete the circuit !  So hopefully Google can find me a manual for this thing. But so far not looking too good...

BTW, can anyone tell me how the coaxial sockets/connectors are called please ? They look like TV antenna / aerial connectors, don't they ? How are they called ? And what's the reference/spec of the coax cable I need to use/buy for these connectors ? Anyone know of a place where I could get decent looking and quality connectors so I can make some cables ?

Also... might try to find some BNC adapters for these connectors ?? This way I can just use normal BNC cables to work on this thing....
I mean Tek did provide UHF to BNC adapters that you would screw to the UHF socket, so it's not totally delirious to think maybe there BNC adapters for the "TV" like connectors, eh ?  Any link/help appreciated as always ! 

Uhhh... you also might wanna invest in some steel-toed boots. Just sayin'.

That's one of the few goods things about my ex job/company. Safety shoes mandatory to get in the airplane, and you get a new pair every year. So I have a few pairs at home and use them all the time actually. I even drive my car with them, makes it less painful to depress teh clutch pedal and press hard on the brakes. Useful to work  in the house or backyard...   

[mnementh]

Their entire team shines with incompetence.  I provided mgmt with a calculation of the cost we incur due to their not doing their job.

Be careful, ultimately the management will not think any more of you for pointing out that certain people are slacking etc. When the time comes in management eyes, to fire your arse, none of the brownie points you have picked up along the way, will count for diddly squat.

In my experience, it is the ones that you are pointing out to management as being incompetent who will more often than not be the ones that get promoted etc, and you get held back because you're just too useful where you are.

Yeah agreed.   Also be careful either way. I got promoted and I do both my old job and the new one.

Just for you, bd.



mnem
The race to the bottom knows no nadir.

[Vince]

...After 30 minutes playing with the thing, I felt something weird as my fingers were accidentally rubbing against metal parts of the instruments, like the power switch or the million screws that hold the guts of the instrument in place inside the cabinet. I could swear it was like some kind electrical shock ! This things was trying to ZAP me !!!! 

That reminded me of these antique consumer crap cheap radio sets where for some reason they tied the two power leads to the chassis via caps. Caps of course go south after decades, so you get zapped big time.

I though maybe something something similar was going on, and me "waking up" those caps after decades of sleep, might see them die abruptly within seconds or minutes... ie  I could die any moment ! So I pulled the plug and took it apart to see how things were wired in there....

Did you try flipping the polarity of the mains plug to see if the problem went away? Did you try and take a actual voltage measurement at the body of the instrument with reference to that comforting lie we call GND...? Might be a combination of internal and external wiring fault.

mnem

No I have not investigated this problem any further for now... might try what you suggested, easy/quick enough to do....