Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away.

It's still fascinating to watch.

[25 CPS]

Crappy.  The other thread about the multimeter backlight colour made me head over to the Keysight website to look up the model number and I did a bit of surfing around there while I was on it and saw a word I hate:

Discontinued

It looks like the thermal imagers are already discontinued for order in Europe due to RoHS considerations as of April 1 this year with discontinuation following for non-EU sales at the end of November, so six weeks left unless you're in Europe in which case they're already gone.

The insulation testers are going halfway through 2022.  The discontinuation notice for those is shorter and doesn't make any mention of RoHS or have differing end dates for Europe and non-EU sales like the thermal imagers.  The last day to order those is May 30, 2022.

I recommended the U1461A I posted pictures of back in September to three friends (two who also do railway museum stuff, one who does HVAC) based on my experience with the one I have so they have a bit of time to decide whether to get one, hold out for any possible end of line sales next year, or start looking at competing models from Fluke, Megger, etc.  I also picked up a Keysight thermal imager from a truck mechanic who wasn't using it much last year and I've been enjoying that too.  I didn't see any replacement products listed on the website so unless they're coming after the discontinuation dates of the existing models, it looks like Keysight will be exiting those lines of business.

[Specmaster]

Actually as long as none of it extends past the sides or rear of the car and it's properly attached it would be legal. It looks OK to me from that picture. You would of course have to tell your insurance company and they may have a different view of it.

But I think over height might be a problem. 

<SNIP>

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

Exactly that, the height alone would make it a liability and a guaranteed magnet for any law enforcement officer 

I don't know, scaling off the image it looks to be about twich the hight of the car. The XJ is 1.3m high. So dragon is 2.6m.  That would be about 4m /13ft total.  In the UK that would not make it a tall vehicle. The standard for tall is >4.5m. Standard road clearance in UK is 5m / 16ft.
The biggest issue I can see is stability. The raised CofG could cause issues bu it does not look that heavy.

I know when I was a teenager, I was an apprentice at our local bus depot, and I was driving a 1957 Hillman Minx and I fitted it with front fog lights but with a différance, dual filament bulbs (headlamp bulbs), full beam for the fog function and dipped beam for an indicator and the lens was amber. I got pulled over by an overzealous police office who proceeded to tell me that my indicators were illegal, even though it was exactly the same principle as employed by Rolls Royce cars at the time. In the end I got a ticket issued that had to be quashed as I used to have to work with the local inspector from the MOT (Ministry of Transport) who would come to the bus depot and give the buses their annual PSV test and certification. He wrote me a note to the police stating that if my car was illegal, then so too was every Rolls Royce car built around that era as they used that system.

I never got pulled over again after that, I wonder why 

[mnementh]

Day off today started with a double helping of one of my favorite guilty pleasures: blueberry Eggos toasted dark with real dark maple syrup. Oh, and a everything bagel with too much margarine and too much cream cheese.

I'd share a pic, but they're already gone. 

mnem
*glommmp*

[med6753]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away.

It's still fascinating to watch.

That is correct. There is a video on raising the bridge I just don't feel like looking for it right now.

And if I told Cerebus directly that he was wrong he'd accuse me of being anti-social. 

[mnementh]

WTF, there is no way that PC plod would allow that to make it on the roads, that is an instant accident just waiting to happen 

Actually as long as none of it extends past the sides or rear of the car and it's properly attached it would be legal. It looks OK to me from that picture. You would of course have to tell your insurance company and they may have a different view of it.
My issue is that tha is the sort of thing that the police would stop and quetion you about. But my current bugbear, electric scooters seem to be ignored. I saw one on Friday. A woman on the pavement weaving in and out of pedestrians going to a primary scholl round 9AM. She had her kid stood on the platform in front of her  I don't have a motorcycle licence. I bet if I was doing the same thing on a unregistered & uninsured trials bike they would call the police and I'd get multiple charges. They don't bother with the scooters but its EXACTLY the same offences 
(and no it wasn't a rental one which are "registered" and insured but are not allowed on the pavement  or multiple riders)

If you look at the eBike forums, this is a source of much annoyance; before COVID, this whole e-cycle thing was a issue being contested heavily in many municipalities. The concern in eBike circles is that legitimate, low-performance users of electrified commuter bicycles will be swept into the trash along with these morons making 2-wheeled Teslas and driving them without license or insurance.

Meanwhile, on the e-Vehicle forums, those morons are gloating over how they can get away with putting a 25-40kW motor up on 2 wheels with a battery made from recycled UPS Li-ion packs and get performance rivaling a Kawasaki Ninja.

They just don't get that a motor is still a motor, whether gas or electric, and it is still a fucking motorcycle; replacing the back footpegs with nonfunctional bicycle pedals doesn't change that a bit. And none of them even know that these are all a motor vehicle, and are legally subject to all the same safety testing before they're allowed on the highways as any other motor vehicle.

Which, in the case of actual motorcycle safety regulations, is already not a really high bar... but pretty sure a frame cobbled together with grand-dad's old stick welder in the basement is still not going to even come close to passing, nor should a "DIY Electric Motorcycle" kit as are being sold in many places on the internet which get around even these sadly out-of-date regulations because they are not sold as an assembled vehicle.

mnem

[mnementh]

Stability talk and Vehicle and the UK how cute 

Yeah, I never did get the niche these deathtraps filled...? A super low-performance cummuter car?

Or was it just exploiting a legal loophole that allowed them to be registered as a motorcycle because of 3 wheels? Did that come with lower cost re: registration/insurance or something?

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Back to TEA,
Pre Covid I picked up a 100K "SUBSTANDARD" resistor at  local rally. It's not poor quality just an odd name for secondary standard.
Unfortunatly this one was substandard, It was open circuit.    Internally it had 6 bobbin resistors. Each should be about 16.6667k. Two were open circuit. I would not even bother finding the open because the other 4 are probaly about to fail. I did have in my high accuraracy resistor box some General Resistance (now Prime Technology) NOS and ex equipment precision resistors. A quick check found a ex equpment 100K 0.0025% 12S30. This checked OK. A repair / upgrde was completed. I was careful not to overheat the resistor so only the tinnin from when it was removed was wetted with fresh solder. The copper etensions to the binding points are symmetrical so TCs should balance. The resistor is date 19 week of 1968 so well aged.
Prema says BAM 

Cheater. 

mnem
 

[med6753]

Started working on the Type 1A1 plug-in installed into the Type 547. I have never seen a piece of Tek gear so far out of calibration as this Type 1A1 is. I strongly suspect there was a tweak happy Gorilla at work especially since each channel has nearly identical faults. First, the DC balance was so bad that at lower pre-amp settings the trace would go off screen. That could be fixed from the front panel and after careful adjustment is now OK. And that improved another issue....the vertical gain. It was off by nearly 25%. After getting the DC balance fixed the gain is now just about in spec. But the gain pots are at maximum. There's a 5mV gain adjustment internal and I'm hopeful once that's set properly I'll have more gain adjustment on the front panel.

The compensation of both channels is terrible and as you can see this square wave is tilted. But to fix that I have to put the scope on it's side to get access to the adjustments, as well as the 5mV gain mentioned above. More later.

 

[tggzzz]

Actually as long as none of it extends past the sides or rear of the car and it's properly attached it would be legal. It looks OK to me from that picture. You would of course have to tell your insurance company and they may have a different view of it.

But I think over height might be a problem. 

<SNIP>

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

Exactly that, the height alone would make it a liability and a guaranteed magnet for any law enforcement officer 

I don't know, scaling off the image it looks to be about twich the hight of the car. The XJ is 1.3m high. So dragon is 2.6m.  That would be about 4m /13ft total.  In the UK that would not make it a tall vehicle. The standard for tall is >4.5m. Standard road clearance in UK is 5m / 16ft.
The biggest issue I can see is stability. The raised CofG could cause issues bu it does not look that heavy.

I don't think it's the CoG that you'd need to worry about, it's the CoP. That and the lift. Do more than 15 mph in that, hit the wrong gust of wind as well and I reckon that you'd be doing somersaults.   

IIRC back in the 80s the Ford Sierra's CoG and CoP weren't in the same place. Apparently a stiff crosswind meant steering was less precise than desirable.

[mnementh]

Actually as long as none of it extends past the sides or rear of the car and it's properly attached it would be legal. It looks OK to me from that picture. You would of course have to tell your insurance company and they may have a different view of it.

But I think over height might be a problem. 

<SNIP>

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

Exactly that, the height alone would make it a liability and a guaranteed magnet for any law enforcement officer 

I don't know, scaling off the image it looks to be about twich the hight of the car. The XJ is 1.3m high. So dragon is 2.6m.  That would be about 4m /13ft total.  In the UK that would not make it a tall vehicle. The standard for tall is >4.5m. Standard road clearance in UK is 5m / 16ft.
The biggest issue I can see is stability. The raised CofG could cause issues bu it does not look that heavy.

I don't think it's the CoG that you'd need to worry about, it's the CoP. That and the lift. Do more than 15 mph in that, hit the wrong gust of wind as well and I reckon that you'd be doing somersaults.   

LOL... I've posted this pic before, and I don't believe it ever raised this much discussion.

Are we all just that bored...? 

mnem
*pssssst* Lookit the license plate.

[mnementh]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away. It's still fascinating to watch.

That is correct. There is a video on raising the bridge I just don't feel like looking for it right now.

And if I told Cerebus directly that he was wrong he'd accuse me of being anti-social. 

Not accusing. Reaffirming. Your place in the Brotherhood of Crusty ol' Curmudgeons. 

mnem
I am not a curmudgeon... A swine-mudgeon, maybe... a repti-mudgeon for sure. But not a curmudgeon.

[med6753]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away. It's still fascinating to watch.

That is correct. There is a video on raising the bridge I just don't feel like looking for it right now.

And if I told Cerebus directly that he was wrong he'd accuse me of being anti-social. 

Not accusing. Reaffirming. Your place in the Brotherhood of Crusty ol' Curmudgeons. 

mnem
I am not a curmudgeon... A swine-mudgeon, maybe... a repti-mudgeon for sure. But not a curmudgeon.

 

[Robert763]

Stability talk and Vehicle and the UK how cute 

Yeah, I never did get the niche these deathtraps filled...? A super low-performance cummuter car?

Or was it just exploiting a legal loophole that allowed them to be registered as a motorcycle because of 3 wheels? Did that come with lower cost re: registration/insurance or something?

mnem
 

In the UK you can drive a three wheeler on a motorcycle or car licence. This made 3 wheelers poular with riders who never got a car licence. The 3 wheelers also had lower road tax and general running costs.

[Specmaster]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away. It's still fascinating to watch.

That is correct. There is a video on raising the bridge I just don't feel like looking for it right now.

And if I told Cerebus directly that he was wrong he'd accuse me of being anti-social. 

Not accusing. Reaffirming. Your place in the Brotherhood of Crusty ol' Curmudgeons. 

mnem
I am not a curmudgeon... A swine-mudgeon, maybe... a repti-mudgeon for sure. But not a curmudgeon.

 

Is that an invitation to piss up the rope 

[Cerebus]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away.

It's still fascinating to watch.

That is correct. There is a video on raising the bridge I just don't feel like looking for it right now.

And if I told Cerebus directly that he was wrong he'd accuse me of being anti-social. 

Why would I do that? We all know you're anti-social; I don't see the point of regularly restating it (unless it's funny of course). 

There was a lot of talk about how nothing could be done about that bridge because whichever way they did it was too hard and too expensive, either raising the grade for the railway line, or digging, dodging utilities and regrading the road. Then all of a sudden it had been moved. I thought the solution finally employed was digging but if it was raising it then so be it, but last time I heard anything in the run-up to it happening, the odds on favourite was digging because the rail regrading would involve a substantial distance of track just because changes in track height have to be so gradual - you can't drive a train over a bump, well not twice.

[Specmaster]

Actually as long as none of it extends past the sides or rear of the car and it's properly attached it would be legal. It looks OK to me from that picture. You would of course have to tell your insurance company and they may have a different view of it.

But I think over height might be a problem. 

<SNIP>

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

Exactly that, the height alone would make it a liability and a guaranteed magnet for any law enforcement officer 

I don't know, scaling off the image it looks to be about twich the hight of the car. The XJ is 1.3m high. So dragon is 2.6m.  That would be about 4m /13ft total.  In the UK that would not make it a tall vehicle. The standard for tall is >4.5m. Standard road clearance in UK is 5m / 16ft.
The biggest issue I can see is stability. The raised CofG could cause issues bu it does not look that heavy.

I don't think it's the CoG that you'd need to worry about, it's the CoP. That and the lift. Do more than 15 mph in that, hit the wrong gust of wind as well and I reckon that you'd be doing somersaults.   

IIRC back in the 80s the Ford Sierra's CoG and CoP weren't in the same place. Apparently a stiff crosswind meant steering was less precise than desirable.

That is correct, I remember someone famous having a crash in a one when a gust of wind caused it to swerve violently. I know that they did not like water, I hit a patch of water on the road and spun a new hire car round and got shunted through a hedge, wrote the car off. Thing is that I had hired a different car for the following day as the 2 cars I had booked were going to become the new company cars so while my old one was being serviced, I thought I'd try them out. The hire company refused to let me have the other car, I wonder why 

[Cerebus]

Stability talk and Vehicle and the UK how cute 

Yeah, I never did get the niche these deathtraps filled...? A super low-performance cummuter car?

Or was it just exploiting a legal loophole that allowed them to be registered as a motorcycle because of 3 wheels? Did that come with lower cost re: registration/insurance or something?

mnem
 

In the UK you can drive a three wheeler on a motorcycle or car licence. This made 3 wheelers poular with riders who never got a car licence. The 3 wheelers also had lower road tax and general running costs.

The history of motorcycle licensing in the UK goes roughly like this:

• You could ride any motorcycle on a provisional (learner) license with no prior experience or testing
• You could ride a motorcycle up to 250cc engine capacity OR a motorcycle up to 350cc with sidecar on a provisional (learner) license with no prior experience or testing
• You could ride a motorcycle up to 125cc engine capacity OR a motorcycle up to 350cc with sidecar on a provisional (learner) license with no prior experience or testing
• You could ride a motorcycle up to 125cc engine capacity on a provisional license after taking a basic off road course of instruction (Compulsory Basic Training) for a maximum of two years before you must have taken and passed your full driving theory and practical tests

The time when 3 wheelers were introduced like the Reliant, and the Messerschmidt, Isseta and other 3 wheeled weirdoes that were legally classed as motorbikes coincided with regime (1) above.

There are various power limits that have gone with the capacity limits over the years.

[med6753]

Is that an invitation to piss up the rope 

 

[Saskia]

picked up the 211 last night.

It is missing the ground clamp on its single probe, and the back is a little bit clobbered. Also not working 100% but did not fully test it. it does show a sine wave when fed one, however in one setting the scaling is off. Need to check if something is outta whack, but currently don't have the time. Need to mentally prepare to bring Hubby to hospital tomorrow, they will tell him the results of his MRT and if they can put him on the gurney to fix it, or if it is not fixable.

Hope to get the building permit by the end of next week so that we can sign the contract for the house in October; I want to get this over with.
Buddy picked up the Festo 150/5 sander for me. I know I am overdoing it, but I don't care.

Still looking for a replacement car for Hubby. However have not found anything viable, we tend to disagree on the requirement for an automatic transmission.
Working to achieve the next objective - another 10 kg shed ... should have it hopefully by end of November.

[Specmaster]

Is that an invitation to piss up the rope 

 

Just checking to make sure, that's all, seeing as it wasn't me that pee'd you off 

[Andrew_Debbie]

Racal-Dana 1200   switch mainframe on eBay  ---> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194202365049

The thing is GPIB controlled and has slots for banks of switch modules.   The eBay item is just the mainframe and isn't useful without plug-ins.   


I wrote automated test software for one of these when I was working part time for Efratom.  1979 or maybe '80.   I was an undergrad student at UC Irvine.   

It hooked up to a set of partially assembled  FRK rubidium clocks during the crystal oven burn in.     The program would step through the FRKs  and connect them to a frequency counter.     As I recall the counter was using the house 10MHz standard.    They'd sit in the rack for however long and the program would print out a report.      Burn-in testing had all been done by hand before, which took up a lot a technician time.   (connecting each FRK chassis to the counter writing down the frequency deviation by hand, probably once a day for at least a week)


Efratom used to trade gear with Racal-Dana, who were next door.   They used FRK modules and we used some of their TE. 

Not long after I completed the project Efratom fired me.  I was given the option of  working full time or being let go.    The engineers told me I made the right decision.

I found another part-time job writing software in a research lab on-campus.   That started me down the path where I met Debbie (in another research lab)  and eventually made a career working as a research technician.

[mnementh]

Edit, that clearance used to be 11 foot, 8 inches and was raised to 12 foot, 4 inches and still gets whacked.

It's not so much that the clearance was raised, they actually had to lower the road. Expensive it was, difference to bridge strikes it made was nothing.

As I understand it, there was discussion about lowering the road surface - but that was not possible due to the water pipes that run beneath.  The bridge WAS, in fact, raised - with the track re-graded to run level with an intersection a short distance away. It's still fascinating to watch.

That is correct. There is a video on raising the bridge I just don't feel like looking for it right now.

And if I told Cerebus directly that he was wrong he'd accuse me of being anti-social. 

Not accusing. Reaffirming. Your place in the Brotherhood of Crusty ol' Curmudgeons. 

mnem
I am not a curmudgeon... A swine-mudgeon, maybe... a repti-mudgeon for sure. But not a curmudgeon.

     

*snurches the rope and scuttles off into the darkest recesses of the internet*

mnem
you don't want to know.   

[mnementh]

Stability talk and Vehicle and the UK how cute 

Yeah, I never did get the niche these deathtraps filled...? A super low-performance cummuter car?

Or was it just exploiting a legal loophole that allowed them to be registered as a motorcycle because of 3 wheels? Did that come with lower cost re: registration/insurance or something?

mnem
 

In the UK you can drive a three wheeler on a motorcycle or car licence. This made 3 wheelers poular with riders who never got a car licence. The 3 wheelers also had lower road tax and general running costs.

The history of motorcycle licensing in the UK goes roughly like this:

• You could ride any motorcycle on a provisional (learner) license with no prior experience or testing
• You could ride a motorcycle up to 250cc engine capacity OR a motorcycle up to 350cc with sidecar on a provisional (learner) license with no prior experience or testing
• You could ride a motorcycle up to 125cc engine capacity OR a motorcycle up to 350cc with sidecar on a provisional (learner) license with no prior experience or testing
• You could ride a motorcycle up to 125cc engine capacity on a provisional license after taking a basic off road course of instruction (Compulsory Basic Training) for a maximum of two years before you must have taken and passed your full driving theory and practical tests

The time when 3 wheelers were introduced like the Reliant, and the Messerschmidt, Isseta and other 3 wheeled weirdoes that were legally classed as motorbikes coincided with regime (1) above.

There are various power limits that have gone with the capacity limits over the years.

Thanks for the infodump guys.    I've wondered idly aboot these heinous things many times over the intervening decades since I first saw one; but the appearance of Dick Turpin in Good Omens brought it back, at least enough to bother asking.   

Glad to know it was something like I always assumed, though still surprised the loophole appears to have survived well into the 80s (gauging by the styling of these particular Robins).

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Is that an invitation to piss up the rope 

   

Just checking to make sure, that's all, seeing as it wasn't me that pee'd you off 

I don't care how nice you ask, I'm not holding the bucket for him. 

mnem
*toddles off to hose his wellies clean*