Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neper]

Just got a message from our electricity supplier: price going up from 90 to 160 euros per month. 

[med6753]

Just got a message from our electricity supplier: price going up from 90 to 160 euros per month. 

On my trip home noticed some gas stations have already raised their price from approx $3.57/gallon to an unheard of $4.50/gallon. Never have seen gas prices that high.

All due to that fuckstick Putin. And between Boris and Biden they MIGHT have half a dick to stand up to him. No, only one quarter dick.   

[med6753]

Anyway, couldn't resist. Tear down photos.

It's all there. The fan is all gummed up and will need cleaning/lube. Not unexpected.




Component side. A thing of beauty and easy access. Good thing because it is full of electrolytics.




This multi-multi range switch deck is jammed tight. Tried with a pair of vise grips and no good expect buggering up the shaft. Will apply lube and let it sit for a day or two.

[Cubdriver]

Beautiful!

Nice, Mike!

[mansaxel]

...just want to share the fact that people expect our corner of the world to bog down in snow completely tonight. And I'm going out for beers and lies with colleagues tonight...

Drive carefully, unless you can melt your way (flatulently)...

Thanks for the good wishes... we are still traveling through the Adirondacks, where the weather summary is: "Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes."

The snow, all the 10cm of it, tonight made public transport a losing proposition.  I had to walk the last 5 km home over open ground. Not very cold, not much snow, but quite windy, and the roads were mostly ice. Three buses had wedged themselves across the road, apparently, and the bus company refused to put a fourth in the mix.

I'd dressed accordingly (anorak, full set of longjohns, extra outer gloves, et c.)  and did not freeze, but the wind was quite annoying. A lesser dress would have been misery.

I long for my bench and a soldering problem.

[Neper]

On my trip home noticed some gas stations have already raised their price from approx $3.57/gallon to an unheard of $4.50/gallon. Never have seen gas prices that high.

So, that would be about 1.05 euro per liter.



And this is one of the cheapest stations around. The government-fixed maximum price is currently 1.80 euro for Super E10 (3 star unleaded with 10 % ethanol).

The snow, all the 10cm of it, tonight made public transport a losing proposition. 

And they always tell us that you folks don't even bat an eyelid under such conditions.

[mansaxel]

And they always tell us that you cope with such weather without batting an eyelid.

We do, because we're prepared. At least some of us are.

[Neper]

But I wouldn't have expected that your public transport breaks down with a mere 10 cm of snow. Then again, here the sighting of a single snowflake brings everything to a (not so) grinding halt.

[Cerebus]

All due to that fuckstick Putin. And between Boris and Biden they MIGHT have half a dick to stand up to him. No, only one quarter dick. 

You're normally the first to moan if someone makes an overtly political post, perhaps you'd like to take your own advice.

Also if we're going there, there are a lot of people who have skin in this game other than merely the UK and the USA, it is most assuredly NOT for those two countries to make the decision for the rest of the world on how to handle this, particularly when that decision making process is being couched in terms of dick size.

[Cerebus]

And they always tell us that you folks don't even bat an eyelid under such conditions.

Well, you can't, can you, when your eyelids are frozen. 

[mnementh]

"Where is everybody?"   (EF)

Dwagon family has been busy making to-do & shopping lists since SWMBO decided last night that we're going to leverage the 3-day weekend to get our last load and other car from the storage unit in Ohio...

Dwagon family touched down at the homestead approx 20 min ago; road-weary but none the worse for wear. We've disconnected the trailer and emptied the cars, now raiding the fridge.

Tomorrow's agenda: away mission to the DMV/MOT/WTF-ever I have to visit to get the Saturn road-legal in Connecticut.

mnem
*goes and does some pre-queueing stretches in anticipation*

[Kosmic]

I'm starting to appreciate having a Calibrator around. I got another of those Scope/Multimeter combo. It's banged up a little bit but was cheap and is working well. The multimeter function was completely off though. No problem, just fired up the Fluke Calibrator and adjusted VDC and VAC. Now spot on everything 





Plugged the scope input in the wideband output of the Calibrator. I should do a comparison with my function generator, not sure if there is really an advantage having that functionality on the Calibrator or it's just there for convenience.



The little scope even comes with FFT.

[cyclin_al]

yup. Would not bid more, got too much stuff already.
- Continued with my small arcade
- had a huge bummer wrt potential buyer of the appartment called and declined
- will need to contact realtor tomorrow
- set up ultrasonic and started disassembling the Dracula pb. Which btw was called back into life by a heart transplant. (I mounted a spare CPU board)

Not feeling that great, winter blues.

That was rather funny near the end to hear the puppies trying to howl too!

Luckily, I was wearing the headphones for this. 
My dog has the genetics to be able to howl, but nobody taught her yet.  I don't plan on it either... especially not teaching a dog using youtube videos   

[cyclin_al]

Yesterday I spot-weldet a banana contact tab of my differential probe against a grounded PSU casing with 230V AC. 



The welding is excellent. 

Most interestingly the slow 1.25A 20x5mm Fuse blew spectactular ...



...before a Brennenstuhl safety switch (30ms switch time acc. to datasheet) engaged, which it did.
https://www.brennenstuhl.com/en-DE/products/plugs-sockets/circuit-breaker-plug-in-adapter-bdi-a-2-30-ip54

That's non-compliant design. The short-circuit current obviously exceeded the breaking capacity of the fuse. Typically any fuse directly connected to the mains needs to be ceramic bodied and sand filled. Some very low current glass ones may be OK because of the very small amunt of metal in them.  For a 240V domestic supply you really need t allow for at least 1000A breaking capacity.
This 1A fuse is OK https://uk.farnell.com/siba/70-065-65-1a/fuse-antisurge-1a/dp/1175140
but this one is not https://uk.farnell.com/littelfuse/0313001-mxp/fuse-slow-blow-1a/dp/4104006
The cermic SIBA fuse is rated to break 1500 Amps while the glass Littlefuse is only rated to break 35 Amps.  You can't rely on any fixed installation fuse or circuit breaker to limit the current because you can't know it's response time.

I need to go check a couple of fuses.... lesson learned!

EDIT: all is good; 10kA breaking capacity in a domestic 120/240V circuit 

[cyclin_al]

...just want to share the fact that people expect our corner of the world to bog down in snow completely tonight. And I'm going out for beers and lies with colleagues tonight...

Drive carefully, unless you can melt your way (flatulently)...

Thanks for the good wishes... we are still traveling through the Adirondacks, where the weather summary is: "Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes."

The snow, all the 10cm of it, tonight made public transport a losing proposition.  I had to walk the last 5 km home over open ground. Not very cold, not much snow, but quite windy, and the roads were mostly ice. Three buses had wedged themselves across the road, apparently, and the bus company refused to put a fourth in the mix.

I'd dressed accordingly (anorak, full set of longjohns, extra outer gloves, et c.)  and did not freeze, but the wind was quite annoying. A lesser dress would have been misery.

I long for my bench and a soldering problem.

Unlike this guy, who was not properly dressed  :
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/20/finland-remi-lindholm-frozen-penis-cross-country-50km-skiing-winter-olympics

The surprising part is that it is not even the first time ... 

[mansaxel]

But I wouldn't have expected that your public transport breaks down with a mere 10 cm of snow. Then again, here the sighting of a single snowflake brings everything to a (not so) grinding halt.

No, one might think so, but the wind is the culprit, along with a change of temperature around 0° C. The snow came in and temperatures were around 1°, because snow usually comes from clouds and they mean less cooling. It was mostly sleet as soon as it'd hit ground. Once the snow was mostly done coming, the wind took on and the temperature started to drop. This led to icy roads and some snow drift.  Add to this inexperienced bus drivers with articulated 3-axle buses where front end has two axles lacking traction; the trailing end, behind the "bellows", has engine and the sole driven axle. And relatively small hills in which there are bus stops. 

The Audi drivers, as usual, flew past me on the road. Mostly in control, unless they would have to make a stop... 

[Saskia]

anybody got some Solaris/Sparc media for an old Sun Ultra 10 ?

[Saskia]

...just want to share the fact that people expect our corner of the world to bog down in snow completely tonight. And I'm going out for beers and lies with colleagues tonight...

Drive carefully, unless you can melt your way (flatulently)...

Thanks for the good wishes... we are still traveling through the Adirondacks, where the weather summary is: "Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes."

The snow, all the 10cm of it, tonight made public transport a losing proposition.  I had to walk the last 5 km home over open ground. Not very cold, not much snow, but quite windy, and the roads were mostly ice. Three buses had wedged themselves across the road, apparently, and the bus company refused to put a fourth in the mix.

I'd dressed accordingly (anorak, full set of longjohns, extra outer gloves, et c.)  and did not freeze, but the wind was quite annoying. A lesser dress would have been misery.

I long for my bench and a soldering problem.

Unlike this guy, who was not properly dressed  :
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/20/finland-remi-lindholm-frozen-penis-cross-country-50km-skiing-winter-olympics

The surprising part is that it is not even the first time ... 

you think a heat pack might have sped him up ?

[Robert763]

anybody got some Solaris/Sparc media for an old Sun Ultra 10 ?

Yes

[BU508A]

anybody got some Solaris/Sparc media for an old Sun Ultra 10 ?

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSolaris

[McBryce]

Oops - hopefully, no hard feelings! 

Nah, why should I ?

my problem is that the Reichelt staff knows me toooooo well. They greet me with my first name and try to enable my TEA.

I am spending way too much there ...

Unfortunately Luckily I don't live close enough to Reichelt to visit them, but there's a large box of components on their way to me from Reichelt at the moment, including parts for the ScopeTrex board you sent me

McBryce.

[tautech]

Whatcha been up to Vince ?
Still sorting parts, getting the garage up or fiddling with instruments ?

Been missing your updates.

[wolfy007]

Picked up a free scope today.  A humble BWD 539A.  Needs a bit of a wipe down on the outside, but looks decent.  As  bonus, it has an asset tag from the University of NSW, which means it could easily have been on campus when I was.

Not turned it on yet ... will be opening it up first.  That's a job for the next day or three.

The story of how it made its way out of the Uni is lost to time - but the person I collected it from told me of the hand he had in its provenance.  There was an estate being cleared with various bits of equipment being - quite literally - tossed out.  He was helping in this endeavour, with some reservations about some of the things being dumped.  While he was not into electronics, he had enough appreciation of these things that when he came upon this scope, he just could not toss it.  He rescued it and has been with him for the last year.

He recently began a clean-up and wanted to find this scope a home where it would be appreciated, so he took the make and model and plugged it into a Google search.  He found a discussion about the model on the EEVblog where it seemed hopeful someone could have an interest.  He then joined for the purpose of posting this under the Buy/Sell/Wanted section ... and now it sits beside me.

Of interest is the heavy stranded wire poking out the back that has been cut.  This is really heavy duty steel with a woven fibre core.  My guess is it was a security thing.

It appears that you can't operate channel 1 or channel 2 independently. It shows "alternate" mode and "chop" mode but not channel 1 or 2 by themselves.

Actually you can turn channel A off by rotating the position nob all the way to the left till you feel it click off, all the models had it from the 539A to D.

Regards
Nik

[McBryce]

Let the Tek related printing begin!

McBryce.

[TERRA Operative]

Oooh nice! Details? I've been meaning to buy some Tek coloured filament...