Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Getting started on the man dwagon cave. First on the agenda: actually attaching my soundbar to the monitor, as I originally intended when I bought that monster VESA mount years ago...

I would have thought the first item would be to get that desk off the wall and ceiling.

When you've got wings and claws conventional placement is less of a priority.

BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I think tggzzz's spatial cognizance may be a bit off; perhaps one too many tailspins "done for fun".



Maybe this will be more to his delicate sensibilities.     One thing's for sure; this desktop will never be that tidy again. 

mnem

      I'M BACK, BABY!!!

[Robert763]

My cheap (£21 inc. post) Fluke 25 finally arrived today. The seller did tell me he was away. There are a couple of nicks on the case and I changed the battery (2014 expiry date on he Duracell in it) before doing the Ohms. anyway:

Fluke sez Bam 

[mnementh]

I didn't realize this was in the UK

With a name like Minchinhampton? Could it be anywhere else? When the Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis eschewed imagination and named everywhere after somewhere in Blighty, sometimes putting 'new' in front of it, they did have the good sense to leave names like Minchinhampton behind. 

Sorry. Sounded to me like a slightly less stagnant bog a few miles from the real swamps. 

mnem
In new Zealand. Or maybe Oz.

[dl6lr]

50.5 litres of Premium Unleaded costs, at Perth's "average metro price" today costs $A83.58.(£44.36)!
And we whinge & moan!

1l Unleaded regular = €1.599 today. So this would be AUD 2.58 per litre. Or 50.5l=EUR 80.75/GBP 69.20/AUD 130.37

[dl6lr]

Wait, what, are you telling me that none of this was reported in the media over there then? We had lorry parks popping up all over the place, including along the M20 in Kent, in fact at one time lorries needed a special Kent Passport to even be in Kent and carried severe penalties if anyone was foolish enough to be driving a lorry in Kent with such documentation 

At least the german news did report on the lorry problems in december.

[Specmaster]

Wait, what, are you telling me that none of this was reported in the media over there then? We had lorry parks popping up all over the place, including along the M20 in Kent, in fact at one time lorries needed a special Kent Passport to even be in Kent and carried severe penalties if anyone was foolish enough to be driving a lorry in Kent with such documentation 

At least the german news did report on the lorry problems in december.

Thanks for the confirmation, and this predates "B" day itself 

[AVGresponding]

Despite the panic buying of fuel, Discord is up

[Cerebus]

My cheap (£21 inc. post) Fluke 25 finally arrived today. The seller did tell me he was away. There are a couple of nicks on the case and I changed the battery (2014 expiry date on he Duracell in it) before doing the Ohms. anyway:

Fluke sez Bam 

I think the 25/27 is becoming the go to meter for the post apocalypse around here. As long as you put a battery in it that won't leak it'll still be working ten years into the apocalypse after you've battered your thousandth zombie to death with it. 

[bitseeker]

You see what happens when we talk politics and why I go ape shit on certain individuals when they insist on using this thread as their personal soap box? The place is turning into a fucking cesspool and now we have other individuals pissed at one another.

I got a PM last night of another regular contributor who has had enough and will no longer post on topic content in this thread. Why? Because it gets lost in the multiple posts of moronic bullshit that seems to have taken over. I for one refuse to give up but I'm not gonna shut up either and I'm going to continue to call it as I see it. This is a TEA thread. Yes, we can wander off topic a bit. But when it becomes all that this thread seems to be lately that's way too much.

Indeed. Everyone needs to keep in mind the EEVblog forum content rules, too. I like that we can have occasional tangents, but that does not equate to immunity and people can still be banned.

Bottom line: This is an electronics forum. It pains me to hear that someone bails from TEA because of others' bad behavior.

Many thanks to med and others who I've seen help to keep the ship upright. Things do go south on occasion, but I'm sure that the reason the thread hasn't been locked is due to your diligence and "go[ing] ape shit on certain individuals when they insist on using this thread as their personal soap box."

[mnementh]

And for a change, 'tweren't me stirring the shit.   

mnem
I must be getting old...

[Specmaster]

My cheap (£21 inc. post) Fluke 25 finally arrived today. The seller did tell me he was away. There are a couple of nicks on the case and I changed the battery (2014 expiry date on he Duracell in it) before doing the Ohms. anyway:

Fluke sez Bam 

I think the 25/27 is becoming the go to meter for the post apocalypse around here. As long as you put a battery in it that won't leak it'll still be working ten years into the apocalypse after you've battered your thousandth zombie to death with it. 

Yes, but I think you could also safely add the Fluke 80 series meters, The Extech MG302 and the Brymen BM867/9 meters into the zombie bashing category as well. 

[bitseeker]

And for a change, 'tweren't me stirring the shit.   

mnem
I must be getting old...

LOL! The dwagon has enhanced his calm with age.

[Neper]

Wait, what, are you telling me that none of this was reported in the media over there then? We had lorry parks popping up all over the place, including along the M20 in Kent, in fact at one time lorries needed a special Kent Passport to even be in Kent and carried severe penalties if anyone was foolish enough to be driving a lorry in Kent with such documentation 

At least the german news did report on the lorry problems in december.

Thanks for the confirmation, and this predates "B" day itself 

It was all over the media in Western Europe, France included. Someone must really have been in a deep coma for weeks on end not to notice it.

[RolandK]

So these fluke, extech and brymen don't have any custom chips nor lcd's inside?

[bitseeker]

The zombies don't mind such details.

[Specmaster]

The zombies don't mind such details.

Its only the skull crushing blow they deliver that the zombies object to 

[tautech]

I didn't realize this was in the UK

With a name like Minchinhampton? Could it be anywhere else? When the Americans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis eschewed imagination and named everywhere after somewhere in Blighty, sometimes putting 'new' in front of it, they did have the good sense to leave names like Minchinhampton behind. 

Sorry. Sounded to me like a slightly less stagnant bog a few miles from the real swamps. 

mnem
In New Zealand. Or maybe Oz.

Not likely...... indigenous place names names are now the thing here were replacements for settlers towns and cities are being pushed down our throats. 

Still, they are welcome to keep some of the originals so we invaders can continue to have a good laugh:
Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu
https://www.newzealand.com/nz/feature/the-longest-place-name-in-new-zealand/

[Robert763]

My cheap (£21 inc. post) Fluke 25 finally arrived today. The seller did tell me he was away. There are a couple of nicks on the case and I changed the battery (2014 expiry date on he Duracell in it) before doing the Ohms. anyway:

Fluke sez Bam 

I think the 25/27 is becoming the go to meter for the post apocalypse around here. As long as you put a battery in it that won't leak it'll still be working ten years into the apocalypse after you've battered your thousandth zombie to death with it. 

Yes, but I think you could also safely add the Fluke 80 series meters, The Extech MG302 and the Brymen BM867/9 meters into the zombie bashing category as well. 

But will the Extech, Brymen or even the Fluke 80 series still be spot on when they are 30 years old? Both my 25's are and they saw military service. My Fluke 89IV is in spec, but only just.

[Vince]

Wait, what, are you telling me that none of this was reported in the media over there then? We had lorry parks popping up all over the place, including along the M20 in Kent, in fact at one time lorries needed a special Kent Passport to even be in Kent and carried severe penalties if anyone was foolish enough to be driving a lorry in Kent with such documentation 

At least the german news did report on the lorry problems in december.

Thanks for the confirmation, and this predates "B" day itself 

It was all over the media in Western Europe, France included. Someone must really have been in a deep coma for weeks on end not to notice it.

Well I live here 24/7 and I don't think I am in deep coma thank you very much ! 

Yet I have not come across anyone even mentioning, never mind making a big deal or feeling concerned in any way shape or form about the brexit, lorries piling up in Calais or elsewhere, and the Brits having difficulties sourcing their favorite French food and whatnot.
Maybe you watch too much TV and media, and ones that use this kind of news to make a big deal out of it so they can fill air time and fill their printed papers. I don't know.

I am not in a deep comma, just having a life, and watching TV and crappy media of all kinds just isn't part of what I call a life...
YMMV, apparentlty it does.

[25 CPS]

Here are some pictures from playing with the insulation tester on Friday with one of my friends who works in the electric traction business.  I don’t have a suitable motor to play with at home so I substituted a 100 foot long extension cord that’s been in the back yard and subjected to the elements since 2014.

I set up a couple of lawn chairs and side tables for our convenience and put the plug end of the cord and the insulation tester at one end and left the socket end of the cord and an Agilent U1272A at the other on a lawn chair after getting the meter lashed up to the remote logging display.  See it a hundred feet down the yard?





The U1461A tester is lashed up to my iPad running the Keysight Insulation Tester app and we ran a whole slate of 1000 V tests on the extension cord Line-Neutral, Line-Ground and Neutral-Ground. 



Then as a demonstration of how taking measurements can affect test outcomes, I connected the U1272A at the far end so we could observe the 1000 V test voltage being applied which we can see on the remote logging display but:





Notice how we go from the many gigaohms on the tester and iPad to just over 9 megaohms?  What the insulation tester is now seeing is the resistance of the extension cord’s insulation shunted by the 10 meg impedance of the DMM.  We can either observe the 1000 V test voltage independently on the second meter or the insulation strength but not both at the same time.  The U1461A does give a readout of the test voltage it’s supplying on the secondary display so you can see both at the same time on the same instrument.



There are some gotchas with the Keysight instruments remote capabilities by the way.  The insulation testers are not compatible with the U1115A remote logging display and need to be lashed up to a phone or tablet running the insulation tester app and only the U1117A Class 1 Bluetooth dongles work with all devices including iPhones and iPads.  I thought I'd grab a quick shot of the Agilent to Keysight rebrand on those.  The Agilent one was included with the insulation tester and the Keysight is one I bought later.

The less expensive shorter range ones (U1177A going by memory?) work fine with everything except Apple iDevices so there are some compatibility considerations to watch out for if you’re putting together a remote instrumentation setup.

[Specmaster]

My cheap (£21 inc. post) Fluke 25 finally arrived today. The seller did tell me he was away. There are a couple of nicks on the case and I changed the battery (2014 expiry date on he Duracell in it) before doing the Ohms. anyway:

Fluke sez Bam 

I think the 25/27 is becoming the go to meter for the post apocalypse around here. As long as you put a battery in it that won't leak it'll still be working ten years into the apocalypse after you've battered your thousandth zombie to death with it. 

Yes, but I think you could also safely add the Fluke 80 series meters, The Extech MG302 and the Brymen BM867/9 meters into the zombie bashing category as well. 

But will the Extech, Brymen or even the Fluke 80 series still be spot on when they are 30 years old? Both my 25's are and they saw military service. My Fluke 89IV is in spec, but only just.

I can't answer that one, as always, only time will tell. Are you suspecting that the SMD technologies employed in the other meters will not last as long as the through hole stuff used on the 25/27's then?

[Neper]

Yet I have not come across anyone even mentioning, never mind making a big deal or feeling concerned in any way shape or form about the brexit, lorries piling up in Calais or elsewhere, and the Brits having difficulties sourcing their favorite French food and whatnot.

Sorry to have stepped on your toes. My friends in Calais and Dunkirk who have had to cope with the backlash of all that will sure be glad to learn how much you care about them.

[Vince]

TE : I finally succumbed... decided not to buy or build a dedicated ESR meter to test the caps in my Tek 575. Not economical.
Instead I bought the dreaded super cheap AVR based open source component tester millions before me have already bought... thinking for 10 Euros  it can measure ESR.. and test common components on top of it, which I desperately need to sort my shit load of salvaged semiconductors over the years. Lab V2.0 is in the making and that involves turning boxes of shit into tested, identified, organized stuff in labelled boxes... so I can actually use this stuff, not just stare at a pile of component thinking "hey maybe something in that pile could do the job ! "....

Did a few sanity checks, looks OK, readings are both plausible and repeatable. Tested a few resistors, as well as my ton of 40+ year old salvaged electrolytic caps, only to find out that.... 99.5% still are within spec capacitance wise, AND still have low / acceptable ESR ?!  The worse that I could find, was of course in the tiny packages, like 0.1uF 16V or something... the size of a (small/tender) pea. There, I found 2 or 3 that  read high at 25/30 ohms. but that's about it !
Gee I am glad I didn't scrap all these caps "assuming" they HAD to be all long gone ESR wise ! They are not !! 

All my big ones measure between 0,00 (resolution of the tester) and 0.100 or something, so just fine.

Then I tested the can caps in the 575, the x4   2000uF 20Vols  caps that are in parallel to smooth the low voltage supply for the Base Step Generator.
I had previously measured them with a DMM at 3000uF instead of the nominal 2000uF, and one at 2750.

Cheap tester agreed 100% with that ! Then tested ESR as that was the goal wasn't it... 3 of the 4 caps read just fine at 0,15ohm, unbelievable, but one is toast, read TWO uF not 2,000uF, and ESR is 150ohms !     So this one definitely is not happy. 

Overall very happy with this cheap tester, the best 10 Euros I have spent in a long time !

Being able to do new measurements is I find even more fun and exciting (and useful...) than buying yet another 35th old scope... maybe there is a trend here... maybe I will wake up one morning and get rid of half my scopes and concentrate on getting more test gear instead ! 

[Specmaster]

Yet I have not come across anyone even mentioning, never mind making a big deal or feeling concerned in any way shape or form about the brexit, lorries piling up in Calais or elsewhere, and the Brits having difficulties sourcing their favorite French food and whatnot.

Sorry to have stepped on your toes. My friends in Calais and Dunkirk who have had to cope with the backlash of all that will sure be glad to learn how much you care about them.

I didn't think it was a problem over there as we are supposed to be waving the incoming lorries through AFAIK, is that not the case?

[Vince]

Yet I have not come across anyone even mentioning, never mind making a big deal or feeling concerned in any way shape or form about the brexit, lorries piling up in Calais or elsewhere, and the Brits having difficulties sourcing their favorite French food and whatnot.

Sorry to have stepped on your toes. My friends in Calais and Dunkirk who have had to cope with the backlash of all that will sure be glad to learn how much you care about them.

Well yes if he lives in Calais in the heat of the action so to speak, I fully understand he might be affected and therefore care. but generalizing like you did and pretend that the entire France knows or even cares, is a rather huge extrapolation.. .France is much larger than just Calais.   

My toes are fine, I have safety shoes !