Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

I never need to repair the switches on my PAPER books. True win there, imo. Bloody millennials, with their stupid electronic jiggery-pokery. Never happen in my day, I can tell you. Books are meant to be made out of paper and smell of libraries, mumble mumble rant rant   

That could only be said by a man who either doesn't read in bed or has a SWMBO who stays asleep when hit with a searchlight. The rest of us, you know, the ones who still want have a sex life of some sort rather than end up sleeping in the dog house, have to make compromises if they want to read in bed.

You can get little LED lights that clip onto a book and only illuminate the page you're reading.

[mnementh]

Regarding the ongoing semantic argument (not the scope one)...

You are basically opening up an invitation for someone who doesn't know what syntax is and what semantics are (which in my experience is every computer programmer ever [except the actual experienced compiler writers]) to start an argument with you that you meant syntax. 

mnem
'dis gunna be goood...

[Specmaster]

To the UK people, if you are in need of fuel for your car, I suggest that you get it sooner rather than later. I have just got back from a late night shopping run because its quieter then, and every bleeding garage I drove by has long queues for fuel and a few in the City of already run out and closed. Tesco in Chelmsford, run out at 1pm and as their filling station is in the store car park near to the exit, they are queueing from the car park entrance only to discover when they reach the pumps that they have no fuel whatsoever left. I have some dashcam footage that I might stick on YT if anyone wants to see it

Now I didn't even know that fucktards were panic buying fuel 

Shooting out to join them 

Edit: got in the car. Tank already full. Winner 

Filled mine yesterday, only because the trip computer was warning me that I only had enough fuel for 20 more miles and that was when my average MPG was reading 54.3mpg. It took 50.5 litres and the tank holds 52 litres, £70.13 that cost. It wasen't all that long ago that would have only cost about £60 

[Cerebus]

You can get little LED lights that clip onto a book and only illuminate the page you're reading.

Tried several, all crap, still wake the missus up. Also the publisher's push to print paperbacks in 'trade paperback' size with elevated prices to match rather than proper pocketable paperback size makes reading them in bed a pain - they're two handed rather than one handed books.

Anyway, I'm more than happy to use a tablet in bed, much better than fiddling with a reading light or led book light. I was just elucidating why I use one for the luddite.

Edit: Also that "only illuminate the page you're reading" is a killer for me - reading fiction that means fiddling with the light every 30 seconds as you move onto the next page.

[bd139]

To the UK people, if you are in need of fuel for your car, I suggest that you get it sooner rather than later. I have just got back from a late night shopping run because its quieter then, and every bleeding garage I drove by has long queues for fuel and a few in the City of already run out and closed. Tesco in Chelmsford, run out at 1pm and as their filling station is in the store car park near to the exit, they are queueing from the car park entrance only to discover when they reach the pumps that they have no fuel whatsoever left. I have some dashcam footage that I might stick on YT if anyone wants to see it

Now I didn't even know that fucktards were panic buying fuel 

Shooting out to join them 

Edit: got in the car. Tank already full. Winner 

Filled mine yesterday, only because the trip computer was warning me that I only had enough fuel for 20 more miles and that was when my average MPG was reading 54.3mpg. It took 50.5 litres and the tank holds 52 litres, £70.13 that cost. It wasen't all that long ago that would have only cost about £60 

I usually top mine up every couple of weeks. Think I did it Wed - cant remember. I only do 10 miles a day in the thing and the odd trip out.

Tomorrow I'm getting on train so not exactly bothered 

[bd139]

You can get little LED lights that clip onto a book and only illuminate the page you're reading.

Tried several, all crap, still wake the missus up. Also the publisher's push to print paperbacks in 'trade paperback' size with elevated prices to match rather than proper pocketable paperback size makes reading them in bed a pain - they're two handed rather than one handed books.

Anyway, I'm more than happy to use a tablet in bed, much better than fiddling with a reading light or led book light. I was just elucidating why I use one for the luddite.

One of the best things I ever did was actually dump all my reading books at the local charity shop. You only read them once, they take up a lot of space, are totally impractical at the best of times, are heavy and don't work in poor light. Plus they are expensive, have huge logistic and environmental costs.

Bought the ass end kindle on a sale day for 39 quid. Books are £1 to £4 a go. You can share them with your family and quite frankly I don't give a shit if you can't keep them. The thing is so much more convenient. It costs me more to get the bus or drive to the nearest bookshop to get one.

People complain about DRM and tablets and lock in and that but at the end of the day I've actually read a stack of books in the last couple of years. Looking at the history, 35 of them on that device.

Currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir. Which I will be slinging in my bag for the train tomorrow. And when that's done I have a couple of Pratchetts lined up. Electrons don't weigh much

Technical and reference books is another thing though. Those cannot be replaced. Yet. So I have a stack of those.

[Specmaster]

To the UK people, if you are in need of fuel for your car, I suggest that you get it sooner rather than later. I have just got back from a late night shopping run because its quieter then, and every bleeding garage I drove by has long queues for fuel and a few in the City of already run out and closed. Tesco in Chelmsford, run out at 1pm and as their filling station is in the store car park near to the exit, they are queueing from the car park entrance only to discover when they reach the pumps that they have no fuel whatsoever left. I have some dashcam footage that I might stick on YT if anyone wants to see it

Now I didn't even know that fucktards were panic buying fuel 

Shooting out to join them 

Edit: got in the car. Tank already full. Winner 

Filled mine yesterday, only because the trip computer was warning me that I only had enough fuel for 20 more miles and that was when my average MPG was reading 54.3mpg. It took 50.5 litres and the tank holds 52 litres, £70.13 that cost. It wasen't all that long ago that would have only cost about £60 

I usually top mine up every couple of weeks. Think I did it Wed - cant remember. I only do 10 miles a day in the thing and the odd trip out.

Tomorrow I'm getting on train so not exactly bothered 

I always try and buy only Texaco because they have the best reward scheme I have ever come across, anyway Texaco messaged me today to say that they shouldn't be affected with fuel shortages on their forecourts. They clearly haven't spoken to many of their outlets is all I can in response to that. The Texaco garage I use was telling, quite unprompted, that they were so busy because people have ringing them to enquire if they have any fuel as they did not to waste any fuel driving round looking for it. I had to queue to get on their forecourt myself, so I expect that they might be dry by now 

[Specmaster]

You can get little LED lights that clip onto a book and only illuminate the page you're reading.

Tried several, all crap, still wake the missus up. Also the publisher's push to print paperbacks in 'trade paperback' size with elevated prices to match rather than proper pocketable paperback size makes reading them in bed a pain - they're two handed rather than one handed books.

Anyway, I'm more than happy to use a tablet in bed, much better than fiddling with a reading light or led book light. I was just elucidating why I use one for the luddite.

One of the best things I ever did was actually dump all my reading books at the local charity shop. You only read them once, they take up a lot of space, are totally impractical at the best of times, are heavy and don't work in poor light. Plus they are expensive, have huge logistic and environmental costs.

Bought the ass end kindle on a sale day for 39 quid. Books are £1 to £4 a go. You can share them with your family and quite frankly I don't give a shit if you can't keep them. The thing is so much more convenient. It costs me more to get the bus or drive to the nearest bookshop to get one.

People complain about DRM and tablets and lock in and that but at the end of the day I've actually read a stack of books in the last couple of years. Looking at the history, 35 of them on that device.

Currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir. Which I will be slinging in my bag for the train tomorrow. And when that's done I have a couple of Pratchetts lined up. Electrons don't weigh much

Technical and reference books is another thing though. Those cannot be replaced. Yet. So I have a stack of those.

Yep, I know, SWMBO has a Kindle as well, its a real paper white one not one of those is difficult to read because of the background colour.

[mnementh]

Regarding the ongoing semantic argument (not the scope one)...

You are basically opening up an invitation for someone who doesn't know what syntax is and what semantics are (which in my experience is every computer programmer ever [except the actual experienced compiler writers]) to start an argument with you that you meant syntax. 

You broke my lexical analyser with unexpected bracketing 

Ooooh! A challenge
())))))))))))))
<>> <

Accepted!   >.<

mnem

[mnementh]

Since I'm fasting, I should post these so someone else can suffer the weight gain. Apologies to BD if I'm exposing his watchlist again...   
Confusing description aside, HFM?!?

   https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114998077514

Why that's only 62.5 cents per Hz!!! A bargain!!! 

mnem
 

[tggzzz]

To the UK people, if you are in need of fuel for your car, I suggest that you get it sooner rather than later. I have just got back from a late night shopping run because its quieter then, and every bleeding garage I drove by has long queues for fuel and a few in the City of already run out and closed. Tesco in Chelmsford, run out at 1pm and as their filling station is in the store car park near to the exit, they are queueing from the car park entrance only to discover when they reach the pumps that they have no fuel whatsoever left. I have some dashcam footage that I might stick on YT if anyone wants to see it

Now I didn't even know that fucktards were panic buying fuel 

Shooting out to join them 

Edit: got in the car. Tank already full. Winner 

I had to wait maybe 120s to get to the petrol pump at my local Sainsburys, which is near Brexit voting areas. Mind you only half the pumps had diesel.

[tggzzz]

Tonight's acquisition. I shouldn't have really since I already have 3 - but only one full set of dividers and one DC block.

I couldn't resist since they are my favourite probes: lovely flexible cable, small head, 1.5GHz passive, decent impedance (<0.7pF//500ohms to <0.7pF//5kohms).

There's a bit missing, but that will be easy to replace with a 3D printed part.

[mnementh]

So, yesterday my "bedtime reading" tablet, a Nexus 9 died. What had happened was that a tiny nub of silicone rubber on the ON/OFF/WAKE/SLEEP switch had worn flat, meaning that it no longer contacted a delicately placed actual tactile switch.

Anyway, this isn't directly about repairing that. But repairing it required a complete strip down, and that requires NOT losing lots of teeny tiny screws. So I christened the silicone rubber tray/swiss roll tin that I got after Mnem pointed his out. Dumped the silicone tray onto a normal "eating off your lap" tray, dumped the tablet onto it and started dismantling it.

"Bloody brilliant" is the conclusion that I have to come to. I stripped down the tablet yesterday and all the fiddley little bits have been sitting on that tray while I spent 24 hours building up a little nub of epoxy on the switch. Today, after the tray has been moved around several times every screw and fiddly little part was still sitting exactly where I put it on the tray. Made it really easy to get the right screw back in the right place.

Tablet reassembled, switch working. Silicone tray declared a winner.

Agreed. Already wondering "why the eff didn't I have this in my Cupboard of Doom for the last 20 years...?"

...and imagining building a little organizer-thing like those commercial bakery carts only smaller (or finding a cheap busted up one and cutting it down) to hold like 3-5 of them in the Cupboard of Doom... so I can put "waiting for parts" projects away on a pan and out of reach of little fingers (and Bumblebutts ) until parts arrive and the project can be completed.

mnem
 

[med6753]

Geez, 3 pages of.....nevermind. 

But I do agree with the statement that an oscilloscope is just barely as good as a 2.5 digit multimeter.

So while everyone in here was PMS'ing today* I was doing what this thread is all about. The last 3 section can was replaced. I knew it was going to be a PITA because of the available space and it didn't disappoint me. But it's done and that's all the electrolytics replaced. At last.

Started checking calibration. Both A & B sweep overlap each other perfectly and the sweep timing is right on the money. No adjustments required. A & B Trigger also good. Delayed sweep also works. So the MAJOR functions of the sweep/horizontal/trigger circuits to me are "in calibration" and there's no need to get fiddly with all the minor adjustments which don't really add up to much.

The vertical on the other hand needs some work. That overshoot is NG. I haven't yet determined if it's in the Type 1A2 plug-in or the vertical circuits in the mainframe. It will be easy to determine that. If in the plug-in that's no sweat. Adjust the compensation and done. If it's in the rebuilt mainframe vertical circuit things could get complicated. Tomorrow's activity.


 

* It's known fact the females who inhabit the same household have their cycles synchronize. Based upon the last 3 pages and the bitching and moaning I think us guys are spending too much time together.  Go release some magic smoke to help relieve your cramps.       

[Cerebus]

You can get little LED lights that clip onto a book and only illuminate the page you're reading.

Tried several, all crap, still wake the missus up. Also the publisher's push to print paperbacks in 'trade paperback' size with elevated prices to match rather than proper pocketable paperback size makes reading them in bed a pain - they're two handed rather than one handed books.

Anyway, I'm more than happy to use a tablet in bed, much better than fiddling with a reading light or led book light. I was just elucidating why I use one for the luddite.

One of the best things I ever did was actually dump all my reading books at the local charity shop. You only read them once, they take up a lot of space, are totally impractical at the best of times, are heavy and don't work in poor light. Plus they are expensive, have huge logistic and environmental costs.

Bought the ass end kindle on a sale day for 39 quid. Books are £1 to £4 a go. You can share them with your family and quite frankly I don't give a shit if you can't keep them. The thing is so much more convenient. It costs me more to get the bus or drive to the nearest bookshop to get one.

People complain about DRM and tablets and lock in and that but at the end of the day I've actually read a stack of books in the last couple of years. Looking at the history, 35 of them on that device.

Currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir. Which I will be slinging in my bag for the train tomorrow. And when that's done I have a couple of Pratchetts lined up. Electrons don't weigh much

Technical and reference books is another thing though. Those cannot be replaced. Yet. So I have a stack of those.

There are currently 145 books as epub on my tablet and 250 as pdfs. I have read them all but for half a dozen or so that are in the queue. There are about 200 fiction books on the living room shelves on 'my' side all of which have been read at least once, some three times or more. (I'll reread an old favourite from time to time the same way that I'll rewatch Micheal Rennie in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" or Anne Frances in l"Forbidden Planet" or even "The Rocky Horror Picture Show".) There are another 100 on 'her' side of the bookshelves that I've read out of the 200 odd over there (including my collected Ray Bradbury, that's a hot book). A few hundred have been given away over the years. Add in library books and the ones packed away in boxes and I'd venture a guess at 2000 fiction books read in 50 odd years in total. So a rough run rate of 40 paper books/year.

The ones on the tablet probably represent 5 years reading. Which means that my reading rate has gone up since I started reading fiction on the tablet. A few books on the tablet are re-reads, but not many. So we're into 395 books in 5 years - my run rate has probably doubled after shifting to ebook form.

Moreover I've got a stack of books sitting on the computer representing classics or modern classics I've read over the years waiting to go onto the tablet for re-reading. Things like 1984, the Cherry Orchard, Mr Pye, a bunch more Chekov and so on.

The tablet weighs whatever a Nexus 9 weighs. I don't know what those 395 books would weigh, but I can tell you I wouldn't like them stacked on my pillow next to my head.

[Cerebus]

Oi! Mike!



You know what to do...

[tggzzz]

One of the best things I ever did was actually dump all my reading books at the local charity shop.

Shudder. Philistine.

You only read them once, they take up a lot of space, are totally impractical at the best of times, are heavy and don't work in poor light. Plus they are expensive, have huge logistic and environmental costs.

No, agreed, not really, neither does my kindle. Not expensive, and they are a good way of storing carbon - almost as good as solidifying it and re-burying it.

Bought the ass end kindle on a sale day for 39 quid. Books are £1 to £4 a go. You can share them with your family and quite frankly I don't give a shit if you can't keep them. The thing is so much more convenient. It costs me more to get the bus or drive to the nearest bookshop to get one.

You pay for books on your kindle? I don't. There's lots of good stuff written before Mickey Mouse.

Second-hand kindles used to be abundant and <<£39 when air travel existed.

Technical and reference books is another thing though. Those cannot be replaced. Yet. So I have a stack of those.

Yup.

[med6753]

Oi! Mike!



You know what to do...

At least I can. Some of you ladies...I ain't so sure. 

[mnementh]

I never need to repair the switches on my PAPER books. True win there, imo. Bloody millennials, with their stupid electronic jiggery-pokery. Never happen in my day, I can tell you. Books are meant to be made out of paper and smell of libraries, mumble mumble rant rant   

That could only be said by a man who either doesn't read in bed or has a SWMBO who stays asleep when hit with a searchlight. The rest of us, you know, the ones who still want have a sex life of some sort rather than end up sleeping in the dog house, have to make compromises if they want to read in bed.

   https://www.ebay.com/itm/403156202498

I have several of these things... they are one of my MVP "cheap China-direct gadgets"; I even keep one in my wallet. 

It's a little bit of PCB with USB contacts made into it; it turns any 5V USB wall wart or power bank into a LED floodlight good for up to ~180 Lumens.

While obviously NOT a good choice in this scenario at max brightness (unless you're trying to prompt a hate-fuck flavored makeout session  ), the big pad on the back is touch sensitive, and the thing is variable brightness down to like 5 lumens or something ridiculous. Low enough that you can see the individual dies lit up, anyways.

Point being that I have used it for this very scenario just plugged into my phone charger with a USB extension draped over my shoulder. 

Crazy cheap on AliEx or fleaBay; I recommend getting them in lots of 3 or 5 as you'll find a zillion uses. The one has a wire ring soldered to the finger-touchpad as I had it installed as a LED conversion on one of my favorite Luxor desk lamps.

mnem
*lit AF*

[vk6zgo]

Erm, exactly. 50km is not a movie scenario where the comely blonde female detective says "Can you track his IP address?" and the geek with the Goth/RPG fixation says "Sure" and their computer zooms in on a map with a street address and the IP address next to a flashing beacon and the geek says "They're in the back southeast corner of the 3rd floor apartment at 123, 45th Street.".

That only happens if the IPv4 address is from the Hollywood allocation block, starting with 320.0.0.0/8 and up. (Of course an 8-bit byte can reach a value of 300+ in decimal. In the USA everything is bigger, so their bits hold much more data! 

Stay the fuck away from my bits widdat scope, ya perv!!! 

mnem
oh, okay... maybe just a little ...   

Guys, can someone get out the extra-large Probulator? The fireproof one.

It's in the big wooden box underneath the "Three & one eighth inch Diaper!"

[vk6zgo]

Thanks for the input, but here's the thing, I genuinely don't know the advantages and disadvantages as I'm neither into programming or involved with any form of IT. So what I did was to use Google so no movies or anything else was involved, and I deliberately avoided sites such as internet providers who have a vested interest in promoting whatever their system is. For instance Avast says suggested similar to what I posted https://www.avast.com/c-static-vs-dynamic-ip-addresses and as such, they have no personal axe to grind so to speak. 

Avast have a vast interest (no, I will not apologise) in fostering paranoia so that they can shift more product. Which is a crap one btw, being such a huge pile of bloatware you may as well have viruses replicating in your HDD using up all the free space.   

There was a time when it was a much more honest product, prior to the paid version appearing.
Using it after having lived with the horribly intrusive Norton was a dream.

Why do all good things turn to crap when the "profit motive" overrides less rapacious feelings?

Dear old Asus shipped this thing with McAfee----Aaargh!
There was the option to turn it off, so when I changed from Window 10"S" (for "stupid'), I did so, & am relying on "Windows Defender", which doesn't seem all that bad!

[Specmaster]

Since I'm fasting, I should post these so someone else can suffer the weight gain. Apologies to BD if I'm exposing his watchlist again...   
Confusing description aside, HFM?!?

   https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114998077514

Why that's only 62.5 cents per Hz!!! A bargain!!! 

mnem
 

It is however very clean and neat looking though.

[Specmaster]

To the UK people, if you are in need of fuel for your car, I suggest that you get it sooner rather than later. I have just got back from a late night shopping run because its quieter then, and every bleeding garage I drove by has long queues for fuel and a few in the City of already run out and closed. Tesco in Chelmsford, run out at 1pm and as their filling station is in the store car park near to the exit, they are queueing from the car park entrance only to discover when they reach the pumps that they have no fuel whatsoever left. I have some dashcam footage that I might stick on YT if anyone wants to see it

Now I didn't even know that fucktards were panic buying fuel 

Shooting out to join them 

Edit: got in the car. Tank already full. Winner 

I had to wait maybe 120s to get to the petrol pump at my local Sainsburys, which is near Brexit voting areas. Mind you only half the pumps had diesel.

More sensible class of people near you then.

[Specmaster]

Geez, 3 pages of.....nevermind. 

But I do agree with the statement that an oscilloscope is just barely as good as a 2.5 digit multimeter.

So while everyone in here was PMS'ing today* I was doing what this thread is all about. The last 3 section can was replaced. I knew it was going to be a PITA because of the available space and it didn't disappoint me. But it's done and that's all the electrolytics replaced. At last.

Started checking calibration. Both A & B sweep overlap each other perfectly and the sweep timing is right on the money. No adjustments required. A & B Trigger also good. Delayed sweep also works. So the MAJOR functions of the sweep/horizontal/trigger circuits to me are "in calibration" and there's no need to get fiddly with all the minor adjustments which don't really add up to much.

The vertical on the other hand needs some work. That overshoot is NG. I haven't yet determined if it's in the Type 1A2 plug-in or the vertical circuits in the mainframe. It will be easy to determine that. If in the plug-in that's no sweat. Adjust the compensation and done. If it's in the rebuilt mainframe vertical circuit things could get complicated. Tomorrow's activity.


 

* It's known fact the females who inhabit the same household have their cycles synchronize. Based upon the last 3 pages and the bitching and moaning I think us guys are spending too much time together.  Go release some magic smoke to help relieve your cramps.       

Not to sure why it is thought that a scope is barely as good as 2.5 digit DMM, a Fluke 27 is +/-.1% +1 digit, thats a whole 2.9% better than a scope surely?

[Specmaster]

Thanks for the input, but here's the thing, I genuinely don't know the advantages and disadvantages as I'm neither into programming or involved with any form of IT. So what I did was to use Google so no movies or anything else was involved, and I deliberately avoided sites such as internet providers who have a vested interest in promoting whatever their system is. For instance Avast says suggested similar to what I posted https://www.avast.com/c-static-vs-dynamic-ip-addresses and as such, they have no personal axe to grind so to speak. 

Avast have a vast interest (no, I will not apologise) in fostering paranoia so that they can shift more product. Which is a crap one btw, being such a huge pile of bloatware you may as well have viruses replicating in your HDD using up all the free space.   

There was a time when it was a much more honest product, prior to the paid version appearing.
Using it after having lived with the horribly intrusive Norton was a dream.

Why do all good things turn to crap when the "profit motive" overrides less rapacious feelings?

Dear old Asus shipped this thing with McAfee----Aaargh!
There was the option to turn it off, so when I changed from Window 10"S" (for "stupid'), I did so, & am relying on "Windows Defender", which doesn't seem all that bad!

Agreed, I don't use Avast at all on my PC, I use Windows Defender and also CCleaner for cleaning junk and ESET as an extra layer of security with Windows Defender.