Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

Nope. I am pointing out how incredibly thankful I am that the closest thing to coding I've had to do in the last decade is a few scripts in PowerShell...

I'm only asking why you are making this text editor poll into a programming language discussion?  Of course, that's all Very Windows of you, seeing as it comes from the side of things where people believe that the programming language (or things like the word processor format) decides which text editor you are supposed to use.

Out here in the free world, we fight about it instead of obeying the vendor. Such improvement.

:x

[Robert763]

Been a busy day. Took the dog to the vet for some dental work. Vet is about 80 miles away but is one we trust. Came home late this afternoon to find a box had been delivered TEA
A good old analog multimeter. An SEI Selectest Super 50 MkII. Snapped up on ebay for only £7. It's in better condition than the one I bought a year or so ago. Needs a clean. Particuarly under the knobs. Dirt here makes it hard to read the switch setting. The glass appears to have been glued in with hot melt glue but it's fairly neat.
A quick calibration check on low voltage ranges shows a slight under-read. This is well within the 1% specification.   
Interestingly the low AC ranges of this meter are specified from 10 Hz to 50 kHz at the full 2.25% accuracy.
I now have a large scale analog multimeter and it's not an AVO.

[mnementh]

Nope. I am pointing out how incredibly thankful I am that the closest thing to coding I've had to do in the last decade is a few scripts in PowerShell...

I'm only asking why you are making this text editor poll into a programming language discussion?  Of course, that's all Very Windows of you, seeing as it comes from the side of things where people believe that the programming language (or things like the word processor format) decides which text editor you are supposed to use.

Out here in the free world, we fight about it instead of obeying the vendor. Such improvement.

:x

Oh, text editor you say...?    Well, since I had to give up LEWP when I stopped using MS-DOS...  WordPad. Use it every day. I love the funny looks I get from people when I send them a document in .rtf or .txt format. And I like it. 

And yes, I have written code in WordPad. Just to see if I could.

mnem
*certifiable crusty ol' agitatin' bastard*

[Vince]

Putting the UNI-T 622A to work. 

I am thoroughly disappointed.. was expecting it to also tell you wire gauge and number of turns  ! Ask for your money back 

[Vince]

Nope. I am pointing out how incredibly thankful I am that the closest thing to coding I've had to do in the last decade is a few scripts in PowerShell...

I'm only asking why you are making this text editor poll into a programming language discussion?  Of course, that's all Very Windows of you, seeing as it comes from the side of things where people believe that the programming language (or things like the word processor format) decides which text editor you are supposed to use.

Out here in the free world, we fight about it instead of obeying the vendor. Such improvement.

:x

Oh, text editor you say...?    Well, since I had to give up LEWP when I stopped using MS-DOS...  WordPad. Use it every day. I love the funny looks I get from people when I send them a document in .rtf or .txt format. And I like it. 

And yes, I have written code in WordPad. Just to see if I could.

mnem
*certifiable crusty ol' agitatin' bastard*

Reminds me once at school we had to hand our French teacher a 4 page dissertation on god know what subject. I was the only one in the class with a computer. A mighty 486 with MS-DOS.
Being left handed, writing anything is extremely slow, a chore, and the result is barely readable regardless of how slowly I write.
So instead I typed it in MS-DOS text editor, IIRC it was called " QEdit" or something ? Memory is a bit dusty here.

Then I printed it on my might Bull 9pin dot matrix printer, and was so proud to hand my teacher a clean, easy to read document !
I was NOT rewarded for this effort ! Guy said : "WHAT, are you kidding me ?! You need to write BY HAND, go do it all over again ! ".

Eh ?! What the point ?! you want a non legible document... and force me to waste time writing what I have already typed ?! Please EXPLAIN !!!

Never did I get an explanation... I guess in the early '90s I was being a bit too "futuristic" for the teachers of the day ! 

Anyway was cool writing on MS-DOS.  Machine was running Windows 3.1 so later I used Wordpad like the Dragon. Quite liked it, does the basic stuff people need, and more actually.
Then I got a pirated copy of MS Word so moved to that... but it was running very slow ( 33MHz 486 with 4MB of RAM) when embedding graphics, so I preferred to use Wordpad when I would suffice.

[Saskia]

paid 75 Brussels Pesos for a Megger PAT 2/2. Hope it gets here and is operational ...

I must say, this does not seem overpriced ...

[mnementh]

Nope, good price as long as it doesn't have electrolyte damage. If it does, well... in some cases a buck would be overpriced.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Oh, text editor you say...?    Well, since I had to give up LEWP when I stopped using MS-DOS...  WordPad. Use it every day. I love the funny looks I get from people when I send them a document in .rtf or .txt format. And I like it. 

And yes, I have written code in WordPad. Just to see if I could.

mnem
*certifiable crusty ol' agitatin' bastard*

Reminds me once at school we had to hand our French teacher a 4 page dissertation on god know what subject. I was the only one in the class with a computer. A mighty 486 with MS-DOS.
Being left handed, writing anything is extremely slow, a chore, and the result is barely readable regardless of how slowly I write.
So instead I typed it in MS-DOS text editor, IIRC it was called " QEdit" or something ? Memory is a bit dusty here.

Then I printed it on my might Bull 9pin dot matrix printer, and was so proud to hand my teacher a clean, easy to read document !
I was NOT rewarded for this effort ! Guy said : "WHAT, are you kidding me ?! You need to write BY HAND, go do it all over again ! ".

Eh ?! What the point ?! you want a non legible document... and force me to waste time writing what I have already typed ?! Please EXPLAIN !!!

Never did I get an explanation... I guess in the early '90s I was being a bit too "futuristic" for the teachers of the day ! 

Anyway was cool writing on MS-DOS.  Machine was running Windows 3.1 so later I used Wordpad like the Dragon. Quite liked it, does the basic stuff people need, and more actually.
Then I got a pirated copy of MS Word so moved to that... but it was running very slow ( 33MHz 486 with 4MB of RAM) when embedding graphics, so I preferred to use Wordpad when I would suffice.

Oh, I have multiple versions of Office at my fingertips. When I have to use those formats I do. But WordPad still launches so much quicker and sucks zero resources; I can be sure that even if I have a browser going with 110 tabs open, it's still gonna come up instantly and not make everything else grind to a standstill.

mnem
 

[Vince]

I have seen one of these China "Keysight" USB GPIB... They are very impressive, come in a convincing cardboard box, all the paperwork is inside like expected, the device itself looks spotless.

Made in Malaysia printed on the box. You expect a "Ceryificate" inside the box, don't you? 
Don't ask how I know... Mine is still labelled Agilent.

And yes, they normally work.

I might be tempted by one of these, so I can use GPIB on a modern computer rather than having to use an old bulky dedicated Pentium box... do you have a link to one of these adapters that I could check out ?

They are all spread over eBay, so just buy the cheap chinesium stuff. Be prepared that the USB thingy is at most one tenth of the speed you get from the real metal.

Typed " Agilent USB GPIB " in Ebay search box... lots of them and all look the same so I guess that's it.

This one for example ??

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392267184467?hash=item5b54f23953:g:HdIAAOSw2oheS0Tg

Cheapest one. Like 100 Euros shipped. Still expensive for a chinese knock-off.

As for speed, ad says it's USB 2.0 and Goggle pretends USB 2.0 is designed for 480Mbps ?! That's plenty enough...
So if the adapter is slow, do you mean it's because the Chinese copies are crap, and the Agilent one will be fast... or they are all slow and it's hopeless ??

That's annoying... if it takes an hour to download or upload a firmware to my scopes and whatnot, it's not going to be a lot of fun 

[Vince]

Nope. I am pointing out how incredibly thankful I am that the closest thing to coding I've had to do in the last decade is a few scripts in PowerShell...

I'm only asking why you are making this text editor poll into a programming language discussion?  Of course, that's all Very Windows of you, seeing as it comes from the side of things where people believe that the programming language (or things like the word processor format) decides which text editor you are supposed to use.

Out here in the free world, we fight about it instead of obeying the vendor. Such improvement.

:x

Oh, text editor you say...?    Well, since I had to give up LEWP when I stopped using MS-DOS...  WordPad. Use it every day. I love the funny looks I get from people when I send them a document in .rtf or .txt format. And I like it. 

And yes, I have written code in WordPad. Just to see if I could.

mnem
*certifiable crusty ol' agitatin' bastard*

Reminds me once at school we had to hand our French teacher a 4 page dissertation on god know what subject. I was the only one in the class with a computer. A mighty 486 with MS-DOS.
Being left handed, writing anything is extremely slow, a chore, and the result is barely readable regardless of how slowly I write.
So instead I typed it in MS-DOS text editor, IIRC it was called " QEdit" or something ? Memory is a bit dusty here.

Then I printed it on my might Bull 9pin dot matrix printer, and was so proud to hand my teacher a clean, easy to read document !
I was NOT rewarded for this effort ! Guy said : "WHAT, are you kidding me ?! You need to write BY HAND, go do it all over again ! ".

Eh ?! What the point ?! you want a non legible document... and force me to waste time writing what I have already typed ?! Please EXPLAIN !!!

Never did I get an explanation... I guess in the early '90s I was being a bit too "futuristic" for the teachers of the day ! 

Anyway was cool writing on MS-DOS.  Machine was running Windows 3.1 so later I used Wordpad like the Dragon. Quite liked it, does the basic stuff people need, and more actually.
Then I got a pirated copy of MS Word so moved to that... but it was running very slow ( 33MHz 486 with 4MB of RAM) when embedding graphics, so I preferred to use Wordpad when I would suffice.

Oh, I have multiple versions of Office at my fingertips. When I have to use those formats I do. But WordPad still launches so much quicker and sucks zero resources; I can be sure that even if I have a browser going with 110 tabs open, it's still gonna come up instantly and not make everything else grind to a standstill.

mnem
 

Ah yes... here as I said on Linux I just use whatever basic ASCII text editor is supplied with the distro, most of the time.
When I want to write small text files just to take notes on various subjects, I just fire up the ASCII editor, lightning quick as you say.

I use the office suite / LibreOffice only when I need more than raw text.

[Vince]

Been a busy day. Took the dog to the vet for some dental work. Vet is about 80 miles away but is one we trust. Came home late this afternoon to find a box had been delivered TEA
A good old analog multimeter. An SEI Selectest Super 50 MkII. Snapped up on ebay for only £7. It's in better condition than the one I bought a year or so ago. Needs a clean. Particuarly under the knobs. Dirt here makes it hard to read the switch setting. The glass appears to have been glued in with hot melt glue but it's fairly neat.
A quick calibration check on low voltage ranges shows a slight under-read. This is well within the 1% specification.   
Interestingly the low AC ranges of this meter are specified from 10 Hz to 50 kHz at the full 2.25% accuracy.
I now have a large scale analog multimeter and it's not an AVO.

It's so cute in pink and with these two big knobs, looks like these old funky looking early consumer radio sets in the '50s in bakelite in the US !
Maybe it's just me.... probably... 

[Cerebus]

As for speed, ad says it's USB 2.0 and Goggle pretends USB 2.0 is designed for 480Mbps ?! That's plenty enough...
So if the adapter is slow, do you mean it's because the Chinese copies are crap, and the Agilent one will be fast... or they are all slow and it's hopeless ??

USB 2.0 High-Speed is 480 Mbps, but USB 2.0 Full-Speed is only 12 Mbps. Yeah, it's almost as if they wanted it to be confusing. I'm betting that it's probably only 12 Mbps, if only because most microcontrollers only stretch to 12 Mbps.

[Vince]

VARTA battery : just wired a 7805 for constant current source operation.... works just fine. With a 560R resistor I get about 10.5mA.

Too late to start discharging the battery now... will have to wait until tomorrow... as always stay tuned ! 

[tggzzz]

WordPad. Use it every day. I love the funny looks I get from people when I send them a document in .rtf or .txt format. And I like it. 

WordPad has one extremely useful ability in a corporate environment. Give it a .doc file, and it shows the versions as edits. That enables you do divine what the mucky-mucks intended/wanted, before they settled on the anodyne public statements.

[Vince]

As for speed, ad says it's USB 2.0 and Goggle pretends USB 2.0 is designed for 480Mbps ?! That's plenty enough...
So if the adapter is slow, do you mean it's because the Chinese copies are crap, and the Agilent one will be fast... or they are all slow and it's hopeless ??

USB 2.0 High-Speed is 480 Mbps, but USB 2.0 Full-Speed is only 12 Mbps. Yeah, it's almost as if they wanted it to be confusing. I'm betting that it's probably only 12 Mbps, if only because most microcontrollers only stretch to 12 Mbps.

Thanks ! OK so there is semantics involved ! 

Well even 12Mbps is a solid MB per second so still plenty fast enough to download an old FW... it's not going to be hundreds of MB is it....
So I guess the adapter and/or S/W handling it on the computer, are bottle necking even at only 12Mbps.... sucks. 

[Vince]

OK so I emptied the big box that contained most of the salvaged stuff I had in stock.

Now let's sort it all out where needed, and try to fit it into the drawers I just bought this evening... not enough drawers I thing, but at least that's a beginning.

All the screws and misc H/W will need further tedious sorting later, into a bunch of small bin.. need to buy that as well.

Gotta start somewhere ! For now the aim is to get rid of that bib container and shove all the stuff into those plastic drawers so that at the very least... it's now easier to get to !
Then later I can further re-organize all that better...creating order is an iterative process here...

I think I have waaaay too many small DC motors ! Need to throw 75% of them away but... what criteria to sue to decide which ones to keep or trash ? 
It's gonna be a bit arbitrary I fear... they are all so similar... since they all had similar duties in consumer gear.

[xrunner]

It's wall-wart clean-out time again in the lab. Testing each one: 5, 6, 9, 12, and misc voltages at your disposal. Where did they all come from - are they reproducing by themselves?

The pile on the left on the table have all apparently died in their sleep. R.I.P. 

[tautech]

Nope. I am pointing out how incredibly thankful I am that the closest thing to coding I've had to do in the last decade is a few scripts in PowerShell...

I'm only asking why you are making this text editor poll into a programming language discussion?  Of course, that's all Very Windows of you, seeing as it comes from the side of things where people believe that the programming language (or things like the word processor format) decides which text editor you are supposed to use.

Out here in the free world, we fight about it instead of obeying the vendor. Such improvement.

:x

Oh, text editor you say...?    Well, since I had to give up LEWP when I stopped using MS-DOS...  WordPad. Use it every day. I love the funny looks I get from people when I send them a document in .rtf or .txt format. And I like it. 

And yes, I have written code in WordPad. Just to see if I could.

mnem
*certifiable crusty ol' agitatin' bastard*

Reminds me once at school we had to hand our French teacher a 4 page dissertation on god know what subject. I was the only one in the class with a computer. A mighty 486 with MS-DOS.
Being left handed, writing anything is extremely slow, a chore, and the result is barely readable regardless of how slowly I write.
So instead I typed it in MS-DOS text editor, IIRC it was called " QEdit" or something ? Memory is a bit dusty here.

Then I printed it on my might Bull 9pin dot matrix printer, and was so proud to hand my teacher a clean, easy to read document !
I was NOT rewarded for this effort ! Guy said : "WHAT, are you kidding me ?! You need to write BY HAND, go do it all over again ! ".

Eh ?! What the point ?! you want a non legible document... and force me to waste time writing what I have already typed ?! Please EXPLAIN !!!

Never did I get an explanation... I guess in the early '90s I was being a bit too "futuristic" for the teachers of the day ! 

Anyway was cool writing on MS-DOS.  Machine was running Windows 3.1 so later I used Wordpad like the Dragon. Quite liked it, does the basic stuff people need, and more actually.
Then I got a pirated copy of MS Word so moved to that... but it was running very slow ( 33MHz 486 with 4MB of RAM) when embedding graphics, so I preferred to use Wordpad when I would suffice.

By the mid 90's we were online and with kiddies at primary school (5-12 here) and reveled in helping them with their school projects. We had a collection of PC's and they had 1 each all hard wired and networked to the 33kbs modem and office PC that ran the printer....few affordable network printers in them days.

The kids were forced to research projects themselves to develop their search and keyword skills then Copy/Paste relevant bits of info into a project document then their mother would edit and rearrange it and maybe add pictures pinched from online sources. Of course some child text input was required and also added in so not to be accused of 100% plagiarism. 
When happy/finished and format/layout approved by appropriate child it was color printed along with a title/front page and a last page with any online reference links when/if required.

Then it was all spiral bound into book form and transparencies used on first and last pages.
The mother was very proud of all the principal awards she earned. 

Still, it set the kids up well on powerful use of technology and beat home their pops insistent: a PC is a tool NOT a toy !

[mnementh]

OK so I emptied the big box that contained most of the salvaged stuff I had in stock. Now let's sort it all out where needed, and try to fit it into the drawers I just bought this evening... not enough drawers I thing, but at least that's a beginning. All the screws and misc H/W will need further tedious sorting later, into a bunch of small bin.. need to buy that as well.

Gotta start somewhere ! For now the aim is to get rid of that bib container and shove all the stuff into those plastic drawers so that at the very least... it's now easier to get to ! Then later I can further re-organize all that better...creating order is an iterative process here...

   I think I have waaaay too many small DC motors ! Need to throw 75% of them away but... what criteria to sue to decide which ones to keep or trash ?     It's gonna be a bit arbitrary I fear... they are all so similar... since they all had similar duties in consumer gear.

Motors are best treated as a "long-term storage" thing. I keep my rando motors (as in, the ones that aren't hi-po brushless for my whirry little flying things) in a plastic shoebox. These are the containers seen above at the bottom of the shelving unit next to my old Radio-Shack-hacked-into-T12-OLED soldering station. They cost a buck or two apiece depending on how many you buy, and will stack up to 4 or so high before you have to worry about them toppling or caving under the weight.

I recommend keeping them all. You really don't have that many, and they are a great source of small bits of spring brass good for fixing switches and relays, as well as varnished wire/magnet wire that can be used for bodges or for making custom inductors. Also, the bushings make good spacers for small screws when you're feeling "maker-ily".

A good assortment of "expendable" motors also means a good assortment of wire diameters and colors close at hand. 

mnem
And don't forget to keep a gutted one handy for magnetizing screwdrivers.

[Specmaster]

Been a busy day. Took the dog to the vet for some dental work. Vet is about 80 miles away but is one we trust. Came home late this afternoon to find a box had been delivered TEA
A good old analog multimeter. An SEI Selectest Super 50 MkII. Snapped up on ebay for only £7. It's in better condition than the one I bought a year or so ago. Needs a clean. Particuarly under the knobs. Dirt here makes it hard to read the switch setting. The glass appears to have been glued in with hot melt glue but it's fairly neat.
A quick calibration check on low voltage ranges shows a slight under-read. This is well within the 1% specification.   
Interestingly the low AC ranges of this meter are specified from 10 Hz to 50 kHz at the full 2.25% accuracy.
I now have a large scale analog multimeter and it's not an AVO.

Those meters are nice, used to have in college when I was there years ago, there were a few of the Selectest and only a handful of AVO's, so I'm guessing that the AVO's were more expensive. I can't get over how little you paid for it either, that was the one from Luton right? I saw that and dismissed it thinking that it got for loads more, just all the others I was watching  I'm so jelly now 

[mnementh]

It's wall-wart clean-out time again in the lab. Testing each one: 5, 6, 9, 12, and misc voltages at your disposal. Where did they all come from - are they reproducing by themselves?

The pile on the left on the table have all apparently died in their sleep. R.I.P. 

Cleaning out time...? Fuck... the last time I had that few was after we went to Canada with nothing that couldn't fit in a Rav4 with 4 people.

And I fucking freaked out! As soon as we were settled, I went on a thrifting binge for tinkery stuff... a lot of which was random power-packs.

Seriously; If I don't have at least a 20-gallon tote to paw through for power packs, I feel incomplete; not a whole tinkerdwagon. 

Umm... one thing to watch out for: Any of these power-packs that are actually for charging something Li-xx powered... especially if they have a charge indicator light... will very often not put out proper voltage unless connected to an appropriate battery. They will often output a low-voltage pulse at low duty cycle until the expected load is placed across them, then they ramp up.

mnem
of course, now you have lots of cords/plugs for when you need to make a custom power-brick...

[nixiefreqq]

Putting the UNI-T 622A to work. 

nice to see someone actually using TE on this thread.

also good to see that you have a shim handy just in case you find a wobbly table leg or a chassis that is missing a foot.

[tautech]

A nice little HP10430A miniature passive 500MHz probe just arrived to match my HP 54504A.
Found it for 20 Euros. 

Can you measure the probe barrel diameter with the hook grabber removed ?
Why ?
I have some tiny 2 leg grabber probe hats I think will fit these probes.
Yours if they match and you want them for the postage costs.

It's 2.4mm

~3.3mm is the probe hole opening where they would press together.
The 2 leg grabber end is 20mm long metal tube and 2.4mm diameter.....pretty sure these with fit your probe.
No markings except for a tiny HP logo.

Very fine grabber whiskers, as fine as Tek grabbers although the metal barrel on these is certainly not ideal for use in confined spaces. 
I have 2 and both can go to new homes as I have no use for them and they've been in my probe accessory box for years.
Free to anyone that's prepared to just pay postage.

I'd rather see them go to 2 recipients......

Thx a lot for the offer and taking the effort, Tautech!

I did some research on the web but found not one clue about matching 2 leg grabbers für the HP10430A. No picture, no list. No hint inside the pare part and accessories listing within the manual either.

So we have to rely on the measurements, see picture below.

In case it fits the next question is the shipping from NZ to DE, I've no idea.
I've no immediate need for that a two-leg, on the other hand it would be a responsible step to keep equipment together 'for the next generation'. 

I can get some costs next time we're at the PO.
Online guesstimator says ~$12 however buttering up our PO lady might get a better price.

Measure 20mm higher up the probe to be sure it will fit in the 3.3mm hole.

PS. ~20mm probe (plus tip) insertion is all that's needed to fully extend the grabber legs.

I'm quite sure your grabber hook hat will be quite fine anyways however the 2 leg grabbers in these are really fine and might get you out of a jam if you haven't got any fine grabbers like Tek ones. They're only disadvantage is the shank is metal so care is needed with where they might be used.

Had them so long I now have no memory where they came from.....it's a real bugger this getting old. 

PeterO, have a firm quote for postage for up to 200gm package to DE for $15.63 US.
Might be too rich for you for just a micro grabber for that HPAK probe IDK.

No worries here if you wanna pass on it this time. 

[TERRA Operative]

Just won myself a handy bit of kit for the old Thinkpad laptop (currently running Win98 for legacy stuff).

Contec CardBus GPIB adapter.
Will help make things a bit easier when messing with GPIB stuff, I won't have to string cables across the place to reach to and tie up my PC.

[mnementh]

Just won myself a handy bit of kit for the old Thinkpad laptop (currently running Win98 for legacy stuff).

Contec CardBus GPIB adapter.

Will help make things a bit easier when messing with GPIB stuff, I won't have to string cables across the place to reach to and tie up my PC.

You bastard. I had successfully erected a mental block against the misery that was CardBus... now I remember...

mnem
Where is the [SMITE] button on my keyboard...?