Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

@Vince, well seeing as France is vastly bigger country than the UK, your 20,000 driver shortage is not bad, the last figure I saw quoted for us was 100,000 short

Yeah 100,000 shortage in the UK, that's also the figure the French TV news quoted the other day.

France is larger as in area, but population/demography is not dramatically different.

Yeah I am glad it's not as bad here as it is on your side of the channel. At least here we don't have shortages of petrol in stations, of basic food supplies in super markets.  But we do have the French Post that takes longer to deliver stuff, and many online sellers display banners on their website warning customers that shipping is in jeopardy and delays can be longer than usual.

And Poland are 125000 or 175000 short depending on whose figures you look at.

The shortages of fuel and empty shelves are nothing to do with driver shortages, they are caused by fuckwits panic buying. We've probably all seen the pictures of some entitled cunt-bag filling 25-gallon plastic tanks in the boot of his borge-mobile, not to mention the silly bitch emptying out mineral water bottles so she could fill those with fuel. People like that are a waste of DNA.

[factory]

Small box of IC's & other bits, sadly I've worked out what the board with 9 readouts came from  , I'll see if anyone else can work it out.



And finally, a very dead Racal counter, readouts & some boards missing, but they left the crystal & the vacuum-filled-transistor-bulb* in the front end.

*Blame shango for this incorrect name.

David

A counter of some sort, beyond that I have no idea.

"vacuum filled"? How the fuck can anything be "filled" with a vacuum?   

It's not from a counter, maybe I should give a clue, it not from TE and I should probably mention they were 10 bulbs fitted originally.

Well Shango does like to give things daft names, this video at approx 3:50 minutes, he calls them vacuum-packed-transistor-bulbs  https://youtu.be/l63SJfQJ3O0?t=230 , would take too long to find the other one (if I got it right).

David

A 10 digit calaculator?

Correct, just need to guess which one....

David

Not a Sumlock ANITA by any chance?

Yes it's from an Anita calculator.

David

[Cerebus]

Hmm, I just won an ebay auction on a re-re-listed item, for £3 less than I offered the seller a couple of months ago...

"If you sit patiently by the river long enough you will be able to watch the bodies of your enemies float past."

[mnementh]

Not normally an ebay day, but what the hey: Someone else buy this so I don't have to:   

What, I thought you didn't like the wobbly needle type meters 

Meter..? Sorry, I thought that thing on the top of it was a lamp holder!   

Oh look, "item not described" claim just waiting to happen.     

David

Yeah, AC & DC current, digital display, 2000 count, backlight, data hold, data logging, RMS, frequency, diode test, continuity, auto-ranging, and handheld, so many ways is that a claim just waiting. 

Hey, I counted 35 digits on that display...! 

mnem
 

[Robert763]

 Hmm just won an auction for "SELECTION OF ELECTRICAL MULTI TASTERS"  for <£20 shipped. Second time it was listed....
It has a lovely Sinometer 830B 

More usefully there is one of the little "credit card wallet" Micronta digitals. And the money shot, a Fluke 11 
OK not the best Fluke ever but handy for electrical work as it has a low imedance mode so you don't get false readings due to cable capacitance. Now all I need is a 12 and I'll have the 10,11,12 set.
There is also a pipe and stud finder.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SELECTION-OF-ELECTRICAL-MULTI-TASTERS-PLUS-STUD-ETC-TESTER-/265356958367
I will probably pass these on to others starting off in electronics.

[mnementh]

Damn you Ice-TEA!!! You've infected me with your crusty old Ni-MH pack disease!!!

Put my recently-acquired iROBOT SCOOBA (no, this isn't the pool-cleaning one; it's the floor-mopping one) up on the bench, since we're now into one of the muddy seasons here and thought it might be nice to have someone else mop the front hallway... and what does the little bastard have lurking inside? a 14.4V/4100mAH NiMH pack from 2008!
And of course now I have to at least try to get it to take a charge...   

mnem
No good deed goes unpunished.

Welp... it took 3100mAH at 1.5A rate while I tore it down to the water pump, cleaned it all, and put it back together. It's been running for ~1 hour; it finished the front hall and I'm now watching it do the living room. It's a bit of a pest; keeps stopping every few minutes bitching that it's stuck. iRobot's website says that means it probably needs new wheels as the tires have lost their grippiness.

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

[Vince]

[..]And the money shot, a Fluke 11 
OK not the best Fluke ever but handy for electrical work as it has a low imedance mode so you don't get false readings due to cable capacitance. Now all I need is a 12 and I'll have the 10,11,12 set.

Hey don't knock on the 10 series  !

I have a Fluke 11, bought it new in 1997 via my electronics teacher at school. I could get a good discount via him. Think I paid 500 Francs instead of 750 ! 
I could not afford a 12...

I just love my Fluke 11, it's basic but good enough for 99% of the job not just in the house or on the car. Even at the bench it's my default DMM because it's good enough for most purposes in practice ! My fancy Metrix MX53/54/56 I don't want to risk them if not needed... the Fluke 11 is bullet proof, small, compact, easy to hold and operate with one hand, tilting bale is stable,  fat digits with good contrast that make easy to read, good quality continuity tester, Vdc checked to be much more accurate than it's claimed accuracy, super rugged... it's just a winner !

Only thing is, it does not measure current... but most of the time you need to measure voltage not current.

So I grab an MX 56 only when I need to measure current or need the much better accuracy and count/resolution.
Metrix is not good at measuring ripple on power rails... it's an RMS meter which takes time to respond. Fluke 11 obviously not RMS so it can measure instantly, I appreciate that. Metrix also is much bigger, takes a lot of space on the bench, and the tilting bale is not very stable. Its continuity tester is not latched like the Fluke is.

After 24 years of use, poor Fluke 11 has some scars sadly. Living in the toolbox is not an easy life... has a big scratch on the LCD window, and the LCD  is leaking... But it still works perfectly !

[Brumby]

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

Oh, my.

There are some bizarre things I think we all do one time or another, but I've never encountered that one before.



On a side note, did you always spell "tyres" that way ... or has the GWN had a positive effect on you?   

[beanflying]

@Vince, well seeing as France is vastly bigger country than the UK, your 20,000 driver shortage is not bad, the last figure I saw quoted for us was 100,000 short

Yeah 100,000 shortage in the UK, that's also the figure the French TV news quoted the other day.

France is larger as in area, but population/demography is not dramatically different.

Yeah I am glad it's not as bad here as it is on your side of the channel. At least here we don't have shortages of petrol in stations, of basic food supplies in super markets.  But we do have the French Post that takes longer to deliver stuff, and many online sellers display banners on their website warning customers that shipping is in jeopardy and delays can be longer than usual.

We have the same warnings on some websites as well.

This isn't a country thing COVID hasn't helped and there is any amount of Jobs vacant here too. Regardless of kicking your workforce out of the country most importantly if you keep paying  in decreasing sized Peanuts eventually the Monkeys get tired of them and being hungry and go where they are offering Bananas and even if you then offer better Peanuts unlikely they will come back.

[med6753]

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

Oh, my.

There are some bizarre things I think we all do one time or another, but I've never encountered that one before.



On a side note, did you always spell "tyres" that way ... or has the GWN had a positive effect on you?   

Next thing you know he'll be spelling "color" as "colour", "neighbor" as "neighbour", and "harbor" as "harbour" and singing praises of the Queen. 

For me, I'll never "tire" of spelling "tires" with an i. 

[med6753]

@Vince, well seeing as France is vastly bigger country than the UK, your 20,000 driver shortage is not bad, the last figure I saw quoted for us was 100,000 short

Yeah 100,000 shortage in the UK, that's also the figure the French TV news quoted the other day.

France is larger as in area, but population/demography is not dramatically different.

Yeah I am glad it's not as bad here as it is on your side of the channel. At least here we don't have shortages of petrol in stations, of basic food supplies in super markets.  But we do have the French Post that takes longer to deliver stuff, and many online sellers display banners on their website warning customers that shipping is in jeopardy and delays can be longer than usual.

We have the same warnings on some websites as well.

This isn't a country thing COVID hasn't helped and there is any amount of Jobs vacant here too. Regardless of kicking your workforce out of the country most importantly if you keep paying  in decreasing sized Peanuts eventually the Monkeys get tired of them and being hungry and go where they are offering Bananas and even if you then offer better Peanuts unlikely they will come back.

But if they offered peanut butter and banana sandwiches I'd definitely considering come back. 

[mnementh]

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

Oh, my.

There are some bizarre things I think we all do one time or another, but I've never encountered that one before.



On a side note, did you always spell "tyres" that way ... or has the GWN had a positive effect on you?   

Good to know I'm not weird in thinking that's weird... 

Ummm... Yes.

I used to do it in certain forums and chats occasionally for flavour; but since I got up here, just aboot all the time.

mnem
but don't tell my wyfe, ehh...!

[Zucca]

3D digitizer for 2 Kinects

nice one!

[mnementh]

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

Oh, my.

There are some bizarre things I think we all do one time or another, but I've never encountered that one before.



On a side note, did you always spell "tyres" that way ... or has the GWN had a positive effect on you?   

Next thing you know he'll be spelling "color" as "colour", "neighbor" as "neighbour", and "harbor" as "harbour" and singing praises of the Queen. 

For me, I'll never "tire" of spelling "tires" with an i. 

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl,
but she doesn't have a lot to say.
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl,
but she changes from day to day.

I want to tell her that I love her a lot,
but I gotta get a bellyful of wine.
Her Majesty's a very nice girl,
some day I'm gonna make her mine, oh yeah,
some day I'm gonna make her mine.

mnem
Lyck me. You know you want tew.

[vk6zgo]

Stumbled across this randomly. Guy's a hoot. Don't expect too much, just hang loose and have a laugh.

mnem
 

Not totally off the wall. In the WWII era there was a boat system that used the exhaust gas from a radial engine (mounted with shaft vertical) to drive turbines driving the propeller. IIRC correctly similar systems were at lest experimented with in tanks. It's a variation of the turbo-compound engine.

Well, no, I wasn't talking aboot the content; that was what got me interested. It was just the whole thing with this street-punk-lookin' mofo up there actually knowing WTF he was talkin' aboot, even with the scary rocket-propellant chemistry going on with these things. That was a hoot.

Isn't that how they drove the props on those amphibious landing craft? They were essentially a disposable vehicle meant to be used once... twice if the soldiers got really lucky.
mnem
*munching on a celery stick cuz... no popcorn for me today*

I would have thought it would have just been an additional function on the rear axle, like the PTO on old Landrovers.

Complex "Turbo this 'n that" would seem to be counter indicated for a "throw away" vehicle, when there were established methods of doing similar things.
The Oz army used DUKW's for decades after WW2, & I'm sure they would have dumped anything non-mainstream.

[TERRA Operative]

Postman brought something tasty today. 

I love it when the seller doesn't know how to use the gear, this was listed as 'no trace', I assumed it might need the usual front-end relays replaced, but nope. Just needed less PEBKAC.

Photo speaks for itself. 

[vk6zgo]

There is about 1 second of TEA with the scope getting used as a Nuke detector.

Bit dumb I have all the Bond's on file but I am watching the free to air complete with adds  Tomorrow Night Thunderball....

"That's a Telequipment S32 Serviscope, & you've had your sinewave!"

Watched "Dr No" the other night, with the Cossor CROs, & earlier, all the Racals at the HQ radio room.

A poster over on QRZ.com a few years back, in a thread about tech stuff in movies, thought they had a "gotcha, & asked " Where are the transmitters?"
Somebody had to be the Grinch, & I gladly obliged, pointing out the movie got it right, & HF stations commonly used separate receiving & transmission sites.

Where they did get it wrong, is with the classic 007 line, "That's a Smith & Wesson, & you've had your six!"
The pistol concerned was visibly not a six shot revolver!

On top of that, it was fitted with a silencer, which, from all I've ever read, don't work with revolvers (certainly the 1960s  ones didn't).

[xrunner]

Watched "Dr No" the other night, with the Cossor CROs, & earlier, all the Racals at the HQ radio room.

A poster over on QRZ.com a few years back, in a thread about tech stuff in movies, thought they had a "gotcha, & asked " Where are the transmitters?"
Somebody had to be the Grinch, & I gladly obliged, pointing out the movie got it right, & HF stations commonly used separate receiving & transmission sites.

Oh and tarantulas can't kill people, Bond was a little too wimpy about that encounter.

[tautech]

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

Oh, my.

There are some bizarre things I think we all do one time or another, but I've never encountered that one before.



On a side note, did you always spell "tyres" that way ... or has the GWN had a positive effect on you?   

Next thing you know he'll be spelling "color" as "colour", "neighbor" as "neighbour", and "harbor" as "harbour" and singing praises of the Queen. 

For me, I'll never "tire" of spelling "tires" with an i. 

Where's that rope ! 

[Zucca]

Postman brought something tasty today. 

I love it when the seller doesn't know how to use the gear, this was listed as 'no trace', I assumed it might need the usual front-end relays replaced, but nope. Just needed less PEBKAC.

Photo speaks for itself. 

Holy shit!

[Zucca]

Talking about Tek scopes in 2021.

I got two quotes for my company at work.
One is $153K (6 Series) the other one (5 Series) is about $140K.

Problem is in both over 70% of the money are just SW options... go piss a rope Tek!

[0culus]

Talking about Tek scopes in 2021.

I got two quotes for my company at work.
One is $153K (6 Series) the other one (5 Series) is about $140K.

Problem is in both over 70% of the money are just SW options... go piss a rope Tek!

Unfortunately, this is true of pretty much all the manufacturers. The hardware is fairly cheap*, but they nickel and dime you to death on options.

*in this context, I mean company dime is buying it

[cyclin_al]

So now I'm doing something I don't think I've ever done before: I am shopping for Scooba tyres.

mnem
I still can't get over how weird it sounds to say that out loud.   

Oh, my.

There are some bizarre things I think we all do one time or another, but I've never encountered that one before.



On a side note, did you always spell "tyres" that way ... or has the GWN had a positive effect on you?   

Next thing you know he'll be spelling "color" as "colour", "neighbor" as "neighbour", and "harbor" as "harbour"

As he should do!

and singing praises of the Queen. 

Hmmmm, we used to be told to do that, but I have not heard that song in at least 10 years... IIRC

For me, I'll never "tire" of spelling "tires" with an i. 

I have never spelt it differently in my lifetime!

[cyclin_al]

Talking about Tek scopes in 2021.

I got two quotes for my company at work.
One is $153K (6 Series) the other one (5 Series) is about $140K.

Problem is in both over 70% of the money are just SW options... go piss a rope Tek!

Unfortunately, this is true of pretty much all the manufacturersindustries. The hardware is fairly cheap*, but they nickel and dime you to death on options.

*in this context, I mean company dime is buying it

FTFY.

Car companies are another obvious example.
My truck does not have heated seats.  The manufacturer offers free oil changes for the first 10 years in order to monitor me and ensure I do not install aftermarket heated seats.  Those aftermarket heated seats are installed by changing a wiring harness adapter to trick the BCM.  OEM heated seats cost $10k and come with a bonus free air suspension... 
At that price, even SWMBO did not object to not having heated seats 

[AVGresponding]

But if they offered peanut butter and banana sandwiches I'd definitely considering come back. 

*throws all the UK supply of peanut-butter in the water at Liverpool docks*