Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neper]

I've always assumed those were "offcuts" from the adjacent remarkable Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

They were in a way, as they were using old rails and bogies salvaged from the RH&DR.
 

Meh......go "Big Boy" or go home. 

Running a steam engine on oil just isn't sporting. It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that smell of coal.

[mnementh]

      Urrrggghhh...   Trying my hand at some really contorted design work; a 3DP adapter to put my Kobalt packs on a Makita SawzAll I bought at the thrift a while back. Am I doing the smart, easy thing, and making it by slapping an existing adapter from ThingiVerse onto a simple block that I can screw into place?   Of course not.   I'm starting all over from scratch, and making it so the new adapter nests inside the existing slides of the Makita, because my calipers say it will fit with at least 2mm of meat on all dimensions to hold it together.

mnem
you may all now point and jeer at the cwazy ol' dwagon...

V2 is printing; The design work took 4 hours due to having to backtrack through all the finish work and fix a core geometry error I caught in final reality checking, but the new design takes 3 hours less to print and 1/4 the filament. Plus the new design should be a lot quicker on the assembly; all I have to do now is fab contacts where before it would've been a fustercluck of epoxy and screw-me doomies before I could even start that.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Running a steam engine on oil just isn't sporting. It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that smell of coal.

Well... what we're using for oil nowadays is really hardly more than coal slurry anyways... so, close enuf, I guess?

mnem
They were just thinking ahead widdat one.

[mnementh]

Currently having a "well, fuck!" moment; wanted to get started fabbing those contacts but found I don't have anything appropriate for material.

mnem
 

[duckduck]

Oh, holy crap! Who here is going to be the lucky one to pick up this bad boy?

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/d/mosier-scanning-electron-microscope/7388162724.html

EDIT:

You'll have to post some pictures of fly eyes here once you get it running. Remember that you'll need to gold-plate the flies before scanning them.

[ch_scr]

Oh, holy crap! Who here is going to be the lucky one to pick up this bad boy?

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/d/mosier-scanning-electron-microscope/7388162724.html

EDIT:

You'll have to post some pictures of fly eyes here once you get it running. Remember that you'll need to gold-plate the flies before scanning them.

E V E R Y T H I N G about this thing cries space age

[mnementh]

Holy fucking asscrackers! Didn't I see that thing in the original 80s INCREDIBLE HULK...?

mnem
tzzzt! and a half!

[Specmaster]

I've seen that video before, that is an accident just waiting to happen. Look at the rails flexing up and down as the train passes over them. It has to be worthwhile sending a crew out to repair the track, as it must take simply ages for the train to complete any journey at that slow speed.

Rails flexing is a perfectly normal part of any railway; if they didn't flex they would break. Remember, every engine going past is somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter to half a million pounds. 

I suspect there's a lot of pros and cons to consider. Leveling/rebuilding any stretch of rail is a large expensive undertaking, during which time the railway is down. If the particular route is relatively low frequency of deliveries but ones that have to go through without fail, I can see holding off on major rework until absolutely necessary.

Just as a rando layman with a very passing interest in railroading I can see that there is a huge can of worms in such a decision-making process.

It's not all aboot maximizing profit without spending on the infrastructure.

mnem
*hoooooooooooonk...*

A few years back to make ends meet I also worked weekends on the railways doing track-laying and repairs while the tracks on either side of us were still running normal services and I can honestly say that tracks never ever had any flex visible. Yes, there are expansion joints where one rail ends and the next begins, but never was there any visible up and down flexing or sidewise flexing. At the time I was doing this, the sleepers and rails were positioned manually and then along came a special machine called a tamper that lifted rails where required and then packed the ballast under and around the sleepers to lock them into position. Surely if we Brits have technology to do this then you must have as well and these days, the whole process is almost fully automated and fast to do.

Sometimes I have just seen the tamper machine trundle down the tracks between running trains and just repack the ballast firmly, so it is isn't that costly to do, either way it is always going to be massively less expensive than having to deal with the aftermath of derailment, especially if there are personal injuries or fatalities involved surely 

All the Class A railroads here (CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, etc. CN and Canadian Pacific in Canada) have the same automated track laying equipment as you do in the UK. Those railroads over the past 20 years or so have made great strives in upgrading their infrastructure. Freight, especially containerized cargo, is very profitable. And those roads don't handle passenger traffic which is very unprofitable. That's handled by Amtrak and they use the same rails as owned by the above mentioned roads.

You have obviously never watched a heavy freight up close go by at speed. Even with the best of laid ribbon (welded) rail there is some downward flex. And I'll bet that's built in. You are dealing with very heavy nearly 5000hp each loco's plus 100 to 200 cars behind it. Passenger trains on the other hand are much lighter and I would not expect to see any downward flex.     

Agreed, but I don't think that this is one of the trains of the type you mention. Take at the video again at around the 3:45 mark and you will see that as each truck passes the rail join, that the rail come up about 6 or 7" or maybe more and you can observe the 2 sections of rail are bolted together and are placing the joint under extreme distress and I'd guess that is why the train crosses the road so slowly.

That amount of movement suggests to me that the rail is not actually attached to the sleepers at various parts of its length. Properly attached rails will spread the weight along the length of the rail and resist the flexing as it is essentially a massively strong I beam.

The railroad was purchased by Pioneer Railcorp on December 28, 2012, which announced the intention to repair and extend it.[3] Pioneer described the line as "in dire need of rehabilitation",[3] and it began extensive rehabilitation in January 2013, replacing decayed cross ties and broken rail.

The above text was copied from the Wikipedia page on this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon,_Defiance_%26_Western_Railroad

[tautech]

You have obviously never watched a heavy freight up close go by at speed. Even with the best of laid ribbon (welded) rail there is some downward flex. And I'll bet that's built in. You are dealing with very heavy nearly 5000hp each loco's plus 100 to 200 cars behind it. Passenger trains on the other hand are much lighter and I would not expect to see any downward flex.     

A few years back helping a mate over Christmas we worked on a NZ railways double track project in the middle of town and on an incline between industrial buildings where lots of fill was laid in to form the track grade 100 years back and the subsoil there was real poo ! 
As there wasn't much room for double tracking we were installing new permanent 8m long sheet piling to retain and widen the track along with an 'under the track' shorter wall that was to have a whaler beam and tiebacks to another beam on the main sheet pile wall.
Our whole project was just installing the 300m of sheet piles but while doing it it very became apparent just how efficient the load bearing system that are rail tracks over substandard soil types.
Significant depths of ballast are common here so to spread point loadings as wide as possible especially where subsoils are poo.

Absolutely no way you can build a road taking the tonnages railways do for the cost they can.

[mnementh]

Now THAT's printing, I can get to work on what's important:



BumbleButt Bar is installed and service tested. Hits me right in the bumblebutt just as I'm putting my key in the lock; no damage to the screen. 

mnem
*tweakable*

[mansaxel]

Take at the video again at around the 3:45 mark and you will see that as each truck passes the rail join, that the rail come up about 6 or 7" or maybe more and you can observe the 2 sections of rail are bolted together and are placing the joint under extreme distress and I'd guess that is why the train crosses the road so slowly.

That amount of movement suggests to me that the rail is not actually attached to the sleepers at various parts of its length. Properly attached rails will spread the weight along the length of the rail and resist the flexing as it is essentially a massively strong I beam.

The play present in the join between the two rails indicates that the fish plate bolts aren't properly tightened either. Since the train didn't derail, I think it's safe to say that the ties/sleepers are (somewhat) attached to the rails but a thorough tamper is in dire need because the ties are flapping about in the ballast.

Edit: I found an instruction that says: "If using an impact or torque wrench then the torque setting should be set to 350 lbft
(475Nm) for black fishbolts and 650 lbft (880Nm) for 1” high tensile bolts." I'm pretty certain there are no 475Nm on those fishbolts in the video.

Regarding vertical motion it is a of course a definite difference between the small but noticeable flexing a passing train will impose on well maintained mainline track and the dance we see here. It is not debated whether track will flex; it will, but there are limits for when it's OK and not.

Having traveled at 320km/h (200mph for you older people) on a regular service, am happy that those rails (LGV Est Strasbourg-Paris, site of the world speed record on revenue track, 574,8 km/h, in 2007) are better cared for.

[Robert763]

freudian slip
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294413267346

[AVGresponding]

Bought myself a table lamp. Someone tried to snipe me but I got in a headshot first!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284464291469


The lamp is missing but I'm sure I can fix that small problem. As it's not an AVO I'll have to paint my own smiley face on it.



@mnem yes I spent some time rummaging through my reclaimed zeners, found a 5.1V one but it's only a 500mW jobby so I'll have to add in a power tranny too, if I want to blow the 2A M205 fuse I'm planning to use without toasting the zener too.

[BU508A]

Bought myself a table lamp. Someone tried to snipe me but I got in a headshot first!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284464291469


The lamp is missing but I'm sure I can fix that small problem. As it's not an AVO I'll have to paint my own smiley face on it.

May I ask you for a favour? If you are going to add a lamp, could you do it as floating lamp?

Here are some suggestions:


I do really like the UFO. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Meh......go "Big Boy" or go home. 

Nah - go asynchronous or go home!
Technology out of Mannheim! We don't want no stinkin' steamers!

[Neomys Sapiens]

Bought myself a table lamp. Someone tried to snipe me but I got in a headshot first!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284464291469


The lamp is missing but I'm sure I can fix that small problem. As it's not an AVO I'll have to paint my own smiley face on it.



@mnem yes I spent some time rummaging through my reclaimed zeners, found a 5.1V one but it's only a 500mW jobby so I'll have to add in a power tranny too, if I want to blow the 2A M205 fuse I'm planning to use without toasting the zener too.

This is not a table lamp! It is a perfectly fine FET analogue multimeter which is nearly identical on the inside with the already discussed PM2502.
If you paint on it, the Koninklijke Marechaussee shall come after you!

[Neomys Sapiens]

I got in on that evilbay sale of the Fluke 27/AN meters; listed at $150, offered $130 and it was accepted, so wound up getting it for about $150 after shipping and paying the .gov's cut.  It arrived today.  Pretty sure it's brand spankin' new old stock - don't think it was ever out of the box.  It includes the 6 kV and 40 kV probes, the RF probe, an operator's manual and a service manual complete with schematics and parts list.

Interesting! Some notes:

• You, as I, seem to miss the standard test leads.
• But the slip-on croc clips for TL71 (or similar) leads are in the 85RF bag. Just as for me.
• I did not get any service manual.
• Mine is full of USMC calibration stickers and has a tag on the case handle also indicating a calibration made back in 2011. This -- from your pics -- seems to be missing for you.
  

Based on these differences and similarities I have two guesses:

• Yours was not opened while in Govt. possession
• Someone went through all the meter cases and removed the test leads to sell separately.

Whoa! Fluke 27/AN with USMC stickers gets even tougher! That's the honeybadger of multimeters! Semper fi!

[Specmaster]

Bought myself a table lamp. Someone tried to snipe me but I got in a headshot first!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284464291469


The lamp is missing but I'm sure I can fix that small problem. As it's not an AVO I'll have to paint my own smiley face on it.



@mnem yes I spent some time rummaging through my reclaimed zeners, found a 5.1V one but it's only a 500mW jobby so I'll have to add in a power tranny too, if I want to blow the 2A M205 fuse I'm planning to use without toasting the zener too.

That is a nice headshot, and a pretty rare meter, just hope that it hasn't got the dreaded Phillips plastic rot. 

[0culus]

Ugh! Not a week after med fixes his Type 547, mine goes down with vertical deflection failure. Q1109 and both vertical output transistors are blitzed. Turns out that despite a fairly late serial number, mine does not have the upgraded vertical output amplifier, so am prepping to do the same upgrade he did. [edit] all parts for the upgrade are on the way!

[mnementh]

Now printing V3 / iteration #2. Now at 6 hours design time, same as the time to print the generic model off Thingiverse and half the filament total; a whopping $1.21 between the two.

Hopefully I got all the bugs this time.

mnem
 

[Kosmic]

Kind of explain why it's not booting. Now I need to find another image software or an older version of Acronis or maybe something that can convert a GPT partition back to MBR ?

Arrggg stupid PC and windows!!! 

Don't use "smart" tools to copy the HDD. Use an as dumb as possible tool to copy the old hard drive content to the new one sector by sector. This will completely preserve the layout etc. Best results are achieved using "dd" on a Linux box.

This actually a good idea. I should take some time and put together a bootable usb stick with everything I need to clone and backup drives.

The reason I'm using Acronis is that I'm also working on a Rohde & Schwarz FSP spectrum analyzer with a completely dead drive. I found an image online but it's a .tib file that was made with Acronis.

Have you tried asking R&S for an install disk? You might have to set up an online account but that's not an issue. They were very helpful with my CRTU to CMU-200 install. They gave acces to severl installs and suggested which one was most likely to work.

Not yet. It's sicker than I thought, and got more things to investigate before I contact R&S. I just realized the PC doesn't even end the boot sequence correctly. It's not even at the step where the HD is a problem.

[Kosmic]

Kind of explain why it's not booting. Now I need to find another image software or an older version of Acronis or maybe something that can convert a GPT partition back to MBR ?

Arrggg stupid PC and windows!!! 

Don't use "smart" tools to copy the HDD. Use an as dumb as possible tool to copy the old hard drive content to the new one sector by sector. This will completely preserve the layout etc. Best results are achieved using "dd" on a Linux box.

This actually a good idea. I should take some time and put together a bootable usb stick with everything I need to clone and backup drives.

The reason I'm using Acronis is that I'm also working on a Rohde & Schwarz FSP spectrum analyzer with a completely dead drive. I found an image online but it's a .tib file that was made with Acronis.

Well, obviously the "smart" utility worked, or there wouldn't be that image. 

mmmokay... I suggest cloning to a spinning rust drive first and see if it partitions as it should. Also, find the Acronis version number and RTFM; there may be switches you can turn off to make it build in MBR mode.

Good hunting,

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a NAND mallet*

So the 2016 version of Acronis did the trick and the brain transplant of the Tektronix was a success 

[Kosmic]

I got in on that evilbay sale of the Fluke 27/AN meters; listed at $150, offered $130 and it was accepted, so wound up getting it for about $150 after shipping and paying the .gov's cut.  It arrived today.  Pretty sure it's brand spankin' new old stock - don't think it was ever out of the box.  It includes the 6 kV and 40 kV probes, the RF probe, an operator's manual and a service manual complete with schematics and parts list.




A few more pics at: https://pmanning.smugmug.com/Electronics/Fluke-27AN-Meter

(Of course I don't have any 9V batteries handy; need to get one tomorrow.)

According to the listing, there are still more than ten left.  https://photos.smugmug.com/Electronics/Fluke-27AN-Meter/i-6zzCL8P/0/9350235a/X2/Fluke%2027_AN%20Kit%20-%20Cpl-X2.jpg
NAWTS, but if you'd like a like new 27/AN, go for it.

-Pat

Damn, can't stop thinking about this deal. Could replace my crappy Simpson high voltage probe I had to modify to work with 10Mohm meters. I might have to extend an offer on Monday 

Dave did a video on the Fluke 27 a while ago

[tautech]

So the 2016 version of Acronis did the trick and the brain transplant of the Tektronix was a success 

Nice save. 

But LOL Keysight did the 2018 Cal on it. 
Could you ever trust it ? 

[vk6zgo]

Bought myself a table lamp. Someone tried to snipe me but I got in a headshot first!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284464291469


The lamp is missing but I'm sure I can fix that small problem. As it's not an AVO I'll have to paint my own smiley face on it.



@mnem yes I spent some time rummaging through my reclaimed zeners, found a 5.1V one but it's only a 500mW jobby so I'll have to add in a power tranny too, if I want to blow the 2A M205 fuse I'm planning to use without toasting the zener too.

This is not a table lamp! It is a perfectly fine FET analogue multimeter which is nearly identical on the inside with the already discussed PM2502.
If you paint on it, the Koninklijke Marechaussee shall come after you!

Oh, the cops!
I envisaged something like the "Baba Yaga!"

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