Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Been an odd TE week for me. Been very busy. The insurance companies contractors have been in replacing the water leak damaged flooring...



Only acquisition this week was non TE. A bit of aircraft kit. A Power Distribution Panel from a Boeing 737-800. Basically a big box with 40 odd circuit breakers and a load of contactors and relays. Been watching it for a while as the price slowly came down. Got it on Thursday for £30. It will be a breaker for parts. Even at commercial prices without certification the relays and CB's are around £100 each.  Should be able to make a profit on this one.

I look at that thing and think "Oooooh... What a lovely box to build a bench power supply inside of..." 

mnem
*in da Big Apple packing grand-dad dwagon down for the move*

[Ice-Tea]

It will be a breaker for parts. Even at commercial prices without certification the relays and CB's are around £100 each. 

Those 33999's may make a buck or two as well...

[mnementh]

As we've seen for decades, LPG is really only viable for fleet vehicles

While LPG (in Sydney, at least) has been pretty standard for taxis, there's a few thousand non taxi-owning Aussies who might not agree with that.

I'm one of them.

I have an old Ford that has been converted to dual fuel - petrol and LPG.

Question asked and answered in the same statement. 

The fact that there are a few thousand of you by definition makes you statistical outliers, therefore pursuing a mode that is not viable for the general public, and for the very reasons I gave in the part of that quote which you've conveniently left out: The general public cannot be expected to handle any compressed liquid or gas fuel safely on a daily basis, for the same reason we don't give handguns to monkeys.

There were people back in the day making Model Ts into EVs too... And they were also statistical outliers.

mnem
I love Teslas... They're a great source of parts to make civilized EVs out of. 

[mnementh]

Personally, I run diesel and have done for decades. You get far greater torque at lower RPM, far greater MPG and is possibly the safest liquid fuel around that has to be a major benefit, doesn't ignite very easily, has a high flash point and does not evaporate unlike petrol, so presents a far lower risk of explosion.

The diesel engine was developed (as in he saw the problem and poured money into the development) by Henry Ford who, even back then, could see humanity at this point in the fossil fuel death spiral. He specifically wanted an engine that could run on corn and peanut oils, such that it would be a sustainable technology. 

Sadly, even if he'd been successful in converting the masses to such power as the "new standard", we would still have all the same problems of burning stuff for fuel. Though it would be interesting to conjecture how much sooner technologies like computerized fuel injection and even catalytic scrubbing would have been developed just to make these engines something the general public could live with.

We might be many minutes further away from midnight on that big clock by now... 

mnem

[Robert763]

Plain white Van.
When they did the survey they said they would take all the lower fitted units and appliances out and put them in storage. They called the day befoere and said they were not doing that and I had to go and buy boxes and empty everything myself.
They had one guy working. Health and safety nightmare. He was smashing up porcelain tiles with no eye protection and lifting heavy akward items alone.
Not a happy bunny

One thing I have heard consistently for years and years is that British trades in general suck. I don't know if it's true or not but seems to be something I've seen on British TV that folks always complain about. And I've watched some of the YouTube videos of sparkies fixing complete screw ups.  After reading your nightmare it appears that it's somewhat true.

Am I wrong or just a stereotype?

It seems a bit bi-polar, either good or bad. For example you can't do any work on gas appliances. The first gass "fitter we used tried to condem our instant flow water heater as our "combi boiler" installation didn't have fixed ventillation. I had to point out that A: It wasn't a boiler, B: It was balanced flue so didn't need a vent and C: the window next to it had a fixed vent anyway.
This was after I had to show him how to take the cover off. and that was after I'd given him the manual 

The fitter we use now is excellent. Then again he is an ex British Gas time served apprentice.
I've yet to find a decent electrician locally.....

[med6753]

Plain white Van.
When they did the survey they said they would take all the lower fitted units and appliances out and put them in storage. They called the day befoere and said they were not doing that and I had to go and buy boxes and empty everything myself.
They had one guy working. Health and safety nightmare. He was smashing up porcelain tiles with no eye protection and lifting heavy akward items alone.
Not a happy bunny

One thing I have heard consistently for years and years is that British trades in general suck. I don't know if it's true or not but seems to be something I've seen on British TV that folks always complain about. And I've watched some of the YouTube videos of sparkies fixing complete screw ups.  After reading your nightmare it appears that it's somewhat true.

Am I wrong or just a stereotype?

It seems a bit bi-polar, either good or bad. For example you can't do any work on gas appliances. The first gass "fitter we used tried to condem our instant flow water heater as our "combi boiler" installation didn't have fixed ventillation. I had to point out that A: It wasn't a boiler, B: It was balanced flue so didn't need a vent and C: the window next to it had a fixed vent anyway.
This was after I had to show him how to take the cover off. and that was after I'd given him the manual 

The fitter we use now is excellent. Then again he is an ex British Gas time served apprentice.
I've yet to find a decent electrician locally.....

Interesting. And I'm not saying it's all roses here. We have our hacks and so called professionals that don't know their ass from their elbow. But most of the time the complaints you hear the most is the cost not the quality of the work itself but there are the horror stories too. 

[Saskia]

just called the fuzz and asked them if they had the Keithley 2700 serial number reported as stolen. They did not.
Here ends my due diligence ...

Need to test if it works but so far does not look bad. will try to get a function gen and something comparable (GW instek or Metrahit) to check and compare.

[Brumby]

Question asked and answered in the same statement. 

So you say.  That's a politician's response.

The fact that there are a few thousand of you by definition makes you statistical outliers,

My comment was based on "my impression" and suitably understated so as not to bloat the facts.  After a little research, I have found some real figures.  These are for Australia as a whole... 21 million registered vehicles, 2 million of which are LPG.  A majority - no, but hardly insignificant.

therefore pursuing a mode that is not viable for the general public, and for the very reasons I gave in the part of that quote which you've conveniently left out: The general public cannot be expected to handle any compressed liquid or gas fuel safely on a daily basis, for the same reason we don't give handguns to monkeys.

I left that part out because I did not feel it relevant.  A completely baseless claim, in my experience.  The system in use here seems fairly robust.  So I ask: What is your source for such a claim?

There were people back in the day making Model Ts into EVs too... And they were also statistical outliers.

mnem
I love Teslas... They're a great source of parts to make civilized EVs out of. 

I have included the above for completeness.  However irrelevant.


My apologies to the TEA fellowship.

[Saskia]

could we drop the EV topic here pls ?

It starts getting annoying and I think everything has already been said.

Here, have some early morning impression instead.

[Brumby]

This is why I offered my apologies.

I, too, am jaded with excessive jibber jabber on non TEA topics, but comment which appears unfounded and contrary to my experience really irritates.  I've bitten my tongue many times, but this time I caved.

I'll say no more on the subject of motor vehicles here.

[Brumby]

A lovely freshwater(?) scene.

[AVGresponding]

Plain white Van.
When they did the survey they said they would take all the lower fitted units and appliances out and put them in storage. They called the day befoere and said they were not doing that and I had to go and buy boxes and empty everything myself.
They had one guy working. Health and safety nightmare. He was smashing up porcelain tiles with no eye protection and lifting heavy akward items alone.
Not a happy bunny

One thing I have heard consistently for years and years is that British trades in general suck. I don't know if it's true or not but seems to be something I've seen on British TV that folks always complain about. And I've watched some of the YouTube videos of sparkies fixing complete screw ups.  After reading your nightmare it appears that it's somewhat true.

Am I wrong or just a stereotype?

It seems a bit bi-polar, either good or bad. For example you can't do any work on gas appliances. The first gass "fitter we used tried to condem our instant flow water heater as our "combi boiler" installation didn't have fixed ventillation. I had to point out that A: It wasn't a boiler, B: It was balanced flue so didn't need a vent and C: the window next to it had a fixed vent anyway.
This was after I had to show him how to take the cover off. and that was after I'd given him the manual 

The fitter we use now is excellent. Then again he is an ex British Gas time served apprentice.
I've yet to find a decent electrician locally.....

I think the problem is a lack of reliable trade bodies as much as anything. The ones that do exist seem more interested in collecting annual registration fees than in checking if their members are actually competent or have pride in their work.

For many years I've heard about how all council tradies are lazy and incompetent; I can tell you that some are, but the proportion to the ones that aren't is broadly the same as in "the real world" as we call it. The main real differences are that we get significantly lower pay, but have significantly higher job security.

[Kosmic]

Got some TEA this week. I was looking for one of those old attenuator with switches for some time. I wanted a 50\$\Omega\$ impedance and not 600\$\Omega\$ that you often find.






Work fine up to 500Mhz does 1 to 102db attenuation and I paid 25$ 

[Saskia]

A lovely freshwater(?) scene.

almost   ... ex harbor, converted to lake for recreational purposes.does get seawater though thru the connection to WHV harbor which is on the Wadden sea

[Brumby]

Having seen what a saltwater atmosphere did to my father's car, I'm no fan of seaside water views.  Maybe to visit, but not to live.  (I also feel for those who have to deal with snow and salted roads.)

Freshwater environs I can handle.

[Saskia]

actually this environment does wonders for my lungs ...

[cyclin_al]

Got some TEA this week. I was looking for one of those old attenuator with switches for some time. I wanted a 50\$\Omega\$ impedance and not 600\$\Omega\$ that you often find.






Work fine up to 500Mhz does 1 to 102db attenuation and I paid 25$ 

Any chance your source has more?

[Cerebus]

Plain white Van.
When they did the survey they said they would take all the lower fitted units and appliances out and put them in storage. They called the day befoere and said they were not doing that and I had to go and buy boxes and empty everything myself.
They had one guy working. Health and safety nightmare. He was smashing up porcelain tiles with no eye protection and lifting heavy akward items alone.
Not a happy bunny

One thing I have heard consistently for years and years is that British trades in general suck. I don't know if it's true or not but seems to be something I've seen on British TV that folks always complain about. And I've watched some of the YouTube videos of sparkies fixing complete screw ups.  After reading your nightmare it appears that it's somewhat true.

Am I wrong or just a stereotype?

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Competent tradespeople doing good work doesn't make good television, idiots with tools on the other hand...

Back in the day when I used to moonlight as Tony's "Sparkie's mate" I worked on a lot of sites with him with other electricians around. None of them were as good as him, but almost every sparkie that I worked near on site I would have happily let work on my own stuff. There are always some marginal ones, and some bad ones, but the majority that did industrial work or work for other over-arching contractors were good. Based on my experience it's the ones who mostly do domestic work, and mostly work directly for the end customer (the consumer end of the trade, if you like) who are hit and miss - there are fewer good ones and more useless ones than in the trade end of the trade.

Even if you get a personal recommendation from someone for a "consumer" tradesperson, the recommender isn't usually well qualified to judge the work, so bad tradespeople can carry on getting work. Robert's situation however, with an insurance company that ought to have its own qualified people to assess the work of contractors, is inexcusable. One would expect the insurance company to quickly weed out any cowboys doing work on their behalf.

[Cerebus]

The general public cannot be expected to handle any compressed liquid or gas fuel safely on a daily basis, for the same reason we don't give handguns to monkeys.

Yet didn't you live for years in a state where they effectively do just that? 

[Saskia]

may I suggest not to deep dive into that topic either ?

Thank you.

[Cerebus]

Some of you may remember that HP  Agilent   Keysight scope that I won in Dave's raffle a year ago. It is finally actually on its way to me:

[BU508A]

No TEA for me this week, because I was on vacation, visiting some friends of mine which I haven't seen for more than two years.

But I got two arrivals this week from the other ETA department (Eccentric T-Shirt Acquisition):

[tggzzz]

Even if you get a personal recommendation from someone for a "consumer" tradesperson, the recommender isn't usually well qualified to judge the work, so bad tradespeople can carry on getting work. Robert's situation however, with an insurance company that ought to have its own qualified people to assess the work of contractors, is inexcusable. One would expect the insurance company to quickly weed out any cowboys doing work on their behalf.

Parents had an unpleasantly clogged drain that I had failed to clear. Domestic insurance policy covered blocked drains, so I invoked it - warning them it wasn't a simple job.

First Dynorod person had a bit of bent wire that was less effective than mine, and wasn't qualified to use anything more interesting.

Second Dynorod person had skills to use power tool, but didn't have them available.

Third Dynorod person had skills and some equipment, but still failed.

I got in a local contractor that worked first time. Didn't renew the blocked drains clause.

Conclusion: insurance companies are full of pen-pushing incompetants whose sole function is to employ big nationwide) companies.
Conclusion: I/we know more than most of the population; that makes it difficult for us. Either we do something ourselves, or we have to spend time/energy finding someone that is more competent than us.

[Kosmic]

Got some TEA this week. I was looking for one of those old attenuator with switches for some time. I wanted a 50\$\Omega\$ impedance and not 600\$\Omega\$ that you often find.






Work fine up to 500Mhz does 1 to 102db attenuation and I paid 25$ 

Any chance your source has more?

Nope sorry, was the only one.

[Saskia]

Keithley 2700 vs Metrahit 28S ...

sorry, no PSU at hand ...

DC
Battery
AA #1 1,60843 V     1,60792 V
AA #2 1,60835 V     1,60787 V
AAA:   1,58425 V     1,58317 V

100OHM:     99,927 Ohm            101,389 Ohm
1KOhm:    0,998790 KOhm       1,00050 kOhm
10kOhm    9,97420 kOhm         9,9743 KOhm
100kOhm 99,5596 kOhm        99,540 kOhm

Temp
21,23 C                           19,5

Freq
Sinus
10 Hz   ~ 10,002       10,001
100 Hz   100,0007     100,003
1kHz     1,000005      1,00005
10 kH 10,00005       
1 MHz 1,000005


This seems to work so far ... might want a calibration though.