Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

Ah hahahahahah! hahahahah! hahaha...... hahahahaha.

hahahaha.

Wait, wait..... give me a sec....

hahahahahaha!


Hoooo boy..... hahahaha.



But I like it that way.


Okok, some are meek and mild, but here's a moment of multicultural education.

So, here's a sweeping generalisation that is a sweeping generalisation... (I make no apologies for this sweeping generalisation that is an sweeping generalisation... )

Tsun tsun, (pronounced ts-uhn) means a tough woman who is also the same in bed.
Dere dere, (pronounced deh-reh, not deere) is a woman who is soft and also 'softer' or 'lvey-dovey' in bed.

Now, we can mix this too.

The oft-favoured type is a Tsun-dere. A woman who is tough in normal life but is softer and 'lovey-dovey' once the freak is on.


A good portion (but of course not all) Japanese woman can be quite opinionated and stubborn (but Japanese standards, but quite acceptable and attractive by foreign standards!) so for me as a strongly opinionated Australian asshole, finding a Japanese wife who was compatible actually wasn't toooo difficult. hahahaha.

And thus ends my lesson.




Come on, toshi~~~!

[TERRA Operative]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

LOL the one I’m friends with is a deeply cynical vicious sick and twisted individual. Conversion diverged into anal polyps and how good laughing gas is last time. Just how I like them 

She's a keeper!

[25 CPS]

Might be just us, but around here electricity is so cheap it would only make sense to install solar panels if you can't get connected to the grid.

It is just you. Most of us in most of the rest of the world don't have "hydro" as part of the local power company name.

I understand about the rest of the world but was wondering about USA. Probably depend of the state you live in. It's true that we are exporting a lot of electricity so it has to be more expensive over there.

Even within Canada, I suspect that 25_CPS pays double for electricity what Kosmic and I pay ...

I'm on the 9.8 cent/kWh tiered rate structure.  I've never gone above the 600/1000 summer/winter kWh thresholds to hit the higher rate.  That was one of the good things that Doug Ford did during the pandemic, allow people to choose between tiered and time of use pricing.  I jumped as soon as I could because I was more than fed up with getting taken to the cleaners due to shift work.  I've been coming out ahead by a few dollars every billing period and I don't have to micromanage when things get done around the house or pay outrageous costs when I'm boxed in by what shift I'm on.

I'll look at the all-in pricing that includes the energy cost, distribution, regulatory, tax etc. minus some green energy credit.  The bottom line is, in Ontario, it's a mess.  Our hydro rates are being heavily subsidized after they exploded due to decades of gross mismanagement across multiple governments so every kilowatt hour sold is being sold at a loss with the difference being heaped onto the provincial debt.  Honestly, more than anything else, I think it was taking the hydro mess and spinning it even more way out of control that got Kathleen Wynne and company thrown out two elections ago more than any other single issue.

I had coffee with a friend last night and he was looking on his phone around 11 PM and saw that power was being imporded due to a shortfall and the wholesale price in Ontario was something like 16.1 cents/kWh so they were losing money on me at 9.8 cents and even more on time of use customers paying the off peak rate that's even lower.  The impromptu car show in the mall parking lot by Tim Hortons was fun though!

[bd139]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

Ah hahahahahah! hahahahah! hahaha...... hahahahaha.

hahahaha.

Wait, wait..... give me a sec....

hahahahahaha!


Hoooo boy..... hahahaha.



But I like it that way.


Okok, some are meek and mild, but here's a moment of multicultural education.

So, here's a sweeping generalisation that is a sweeping generalisation... (I make no apologies for this sweeping generalisation that is an sweeping generalisation... )

Tsun tsun, (pronounced ts-uhn) means a tough woman who is also the same in bed.
Dere dere, (pronounced deh-reh, not deere) is a woman who is soft and also 'softer' or 'lvey-dovey' in bed.

Now, we can mix this too.

The oft-favoured type is a Tsun-dere. A woman who is tough in normal life but is softer and 'lovey-dovey' once the freak is on.


A good portion (but of course not all) Japanese woman can be quite opinionated and stubborn (but Japanese standards, but quite acceptable and attractive by foreign standards!) so for me as a strongly opinionated Australian asshole, finding a Japanese wife who was compatible actually wasn't toooo difficult. hahahaha.

And thus ends my lesson.




Come on, toshi~~~!

That's bloody hilarious 

[Specmaster]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

Ah hahahahahah! hahahahah! hahaha...... hahahahaha.

hahahaha.

Wait, wait..... give me a sec....

hahahahahaha!


Hoooo boy..... hahahaha.



But I like it that way.


Okok, some are meek and mild, but here's a moment of multicultural education.

So, here's a sweeping generalisation that is a sweeping generalisation... (I make no apologies for this sweeping generalisation that is an sweeping generalisation... )

Tsun tsun, (pronounced ts-uhn) means a tough woman who is also the same in bed.
Dere dere, (pronounced deh-reh, not deere) is a woman who is soft and also 'softer' or 'lvey-dovey' in bed.

Now, we can mix this too.

The oft-favoured type is a Tsun-dere. A woman who is tough in normal life but is softer and 'lovey-dovey' once the freak is on.


A good portion (but of course not all) Japanese woman can be quite opinionated and stubborn (but Japanese standards, but quite acceptable and attractive by foreign standards!) so for me as a strongly opinionated Australian asshole, finding a Japanese wife who was compatible actually wasn't toooo difficult. hahahaha.

And thus ends my lesson.




Come on, toshi~~~!

That's bloody hilarious 

Oh hell yes, she's a keeper for sure 

The ebay offer would have been useless  to me anyway, it was an auction, so didn't qualify.

[med6753]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

Ah hahahahahah! hahahahah! hahaha...... hahahahaha.

hahahaha.

Wait, wait..... give me a sec....

hahahahahaha!


Hoooo boy..... hahahaha.



But I like it that way.


Okok, some are meek and mild, but here's a moment of multicultural education.

So, here's a sweeping generalisation that is a sweeping generalisation... (I make no apologies for this sweeping generalisation that is an sweeping generalisation... )

Tsun tsun, (pronounced ts-uhn) means a tough woman who is also the same in bed.
Dere dere, (pronounced deh-reh, not deere) is a woman who is soft and also 'softer' or 'lvey-dovey' in bed.

Now, we can mix this too.

The oft-favoured type is a Tsun-dere. A woman who is tough in normal life but is softer and 'lovey-dovey' once the freak is on.


A good portion (but of course not all) Japanese woman can be quite opinionated and stubborn (but Japanese standards, but quite acceptable and attractive by foreign standards!) so for me as a strongly opinionated Australian asshole, finding a Japanese wife who was compatible actually wasn't toooo difficult. hahahaha.

And thus ends my lesson.




Come on, toshi~~~!

That's bloody hilarious 

WTF. LMAO. 

[25 CPS]

Even within Canada, I suspect that 25_CPS pays double for electricity what Kosmic and I pay ...

That got me curious so I looked it up.

Here in the mess known as the Province of Ontario (...a place too bland, a place to slow, give me a fart to blow...  I mean, a place to stand, a place to grow...) we have:

8.2 cents/kWh - off peak
11.3 - mid peak
17.0 - on peak

9.8 cents/kWh - tier 1 up to 600 kWh in summer, 1000 in winter
11.5 cents/kWh - tier 2 above those thresholds

When I moved in here, the spread between off peak and on peak rates was larger and the place had an electric water heater and every time I had to shower before heading to a 4:00-midnight shift, the 3 kW heating element in the thing would be spinning the meter at mid peak or on peak rates depending on season.  Unless I tore through it like I was bouncing through a bird bath, it was costing close to a dollar a day for shower water heating alone.  And there was no choice about rate structure either, if you had a smart meter, you were on time of use.  The only locations on tiered pricing were in places where smart meters couldn't be used and they still had spinning disc hydro meters, so it was a choice between micromanaging everything around different shifts and forking out whatever it cost if that wasn't possible.

I went through 325 kWh in the last billing period which worked out to $31.85.  Add $35.50 for delivery.  Add $1.56 regulatory.  Subtotal of $68.91.  Add $8.96 sales tax which brings it to $77.87.  Subtract $11.71 "Ontario Electricity Rebate" and that works out to $66.16.  Multiply by 100 to convert to cents, then divide by that 325 kWh and I get an all in price of 20.36 cents per kWh in the most recent billing period.  That's pretty consistent with what I've gotten the last few times I've sat down and worked through the numbers.

Hydro bills here have been a godforsaken dog's breakfast for decades.  With the Ontario Hydro debt retirement charge, the green energy credit, both those scrapped, the rates bouncing up and down like a yoyo whenever the government of the day moves subsidies in and out of the rates vs. a separate line item on bills, you practically need to be a mathematician or spreadsheet wizard to do a proper apples-to-apples comparison of your bills between years sometimes.

[mansaxel]

You have to check in with Ofcom every 5 years here. Mine expires in 2026

That is, about, two changes of mind, including two complete shack purchases and subsequent divestments, from you. Make sure you time your "on" period with the Ofcom appointment, so you'll be able to keep changing your mind.

Helpingly

[mansaxel]

I love you long time baby!

Is the firmware the only thing you want out?

As soon as I have a GPIB solution (isn't that the way to do it, or is it programmer on proms? ) I'll do what I can.

[mansaxel]

I would buy that based on my social circle at the moment. The woman in question was offended at my mention of Wagamama being quite good on a hiking trip and has made it a mission to take me to some decent Japanese restaurants. Going out again with her on Tuesday… 

The Hakkasan is quite good, albeit much more Canton than Nippon. Probably quite expensive too; ${VENDOR} was picking up the tab when I went (Tottenham Court Road one). And they let me handle the wine list...  That did get quite dangerous very quick.

[mansaxel]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

LOL the one I’m friends with is a deeply cynical vicious sick and twisted individual. Conversion diverged into anal polyps and how good laughing gas is last time. Just how I like them 

That is marriage material, should one be on that tack in life.

[mnementh]

...As for the book, been mulling the idea of writing a book for about ten years. Subject matter is basically all those bits of info that everyone should know before doing a Udemy “how to code” tutorial. I encounter a lot of people who can’t even visualise what a computer or network looks like past some opaque magic and expect me to fill the gaps in 

Sounds like a Layer 8 problem to me. 

mnem
Maybe Layer 9... are there any Ronin PHBs floating around...? You'll need a exorcist...

[factory]

No luck for me on ePay lately....

Well I got outbid on the hp 5090B receiver. 
I didn't mention it the other day, but the 5090 was supposedly the first hp TE designed in the UK, they seem quite uncommon too, though maybe a bunch of modified ones will appear on the bay, as spares/repair once the LW radio signal finally becomes EOL. 


Also tried to bid on a hp 185B oscilloscope that would have ended Friday at 11.30am, no bids all week, so I though no one else was interested (like the one in Germany that went for a single digit € a while ago). I was working when it ended and snuck away from the BDNL* to bid a ten minutes prior to the end, only to find the ePay mobile programme wouldn't accept my bid  turns out it sold on an offer about an hour or two before the end. This might or might not have been a good thing, as it was advertised as a "barn find" with minimal pictures and the sellers other "barn finds" looked in quite poor condition. 


*big dirty noisy lathe

David

[nfmax]

A special bonus point to the first person to correctly describe what purpose D1 serves

I can figure two purposes:
1. help with measuring the quiescent current of parts of the circuit, since you've attached a test point
2. when U1 pin 9 switches, the common R1, R2, C2 node sees voltages below BATT- and above BATT+, the diode will allow the supply voltage of U1 to rise above BATT+ and the stored energy of C2 will be used to supply U1 for some time, reducing the influence of R1 to the timing.

1. No - that's actually a KiCad 'power rail' flag to tell the DRC the power pin of U1 is actually connected to a power supply

2. Not quite, but getting warm. R1 limits the current through the diodes. This would end up in C1 anyway if D1 wasn't there. R1 needs to be as large as possible to avoid affecting the oscillation time. According to the data sheet it isn't actually large enough. Frequency of oscillation - which isn't that critical anyway - was established experimentally. You want to keep C2 as small as possible for a given frequency, as the charge it holds at the end of each cycle is wasted! The oscillation frequency is actually pretty stable despite ambient temperature and supply voltage changes, even though it isn't doesn't matter much.

A special bonus point to the first person to correctly describe what purpose D1 serves

I wish all schematics were as well laid out and informative as that!

We try to do our best! 

I guess D1 prevents SCR latchup when there's no battery and the voltage across C1 decays.

Nope.

4000B CMOS is specified down to 3V supply. Which means that both the P & N device thresholds must be less than that. So at 6V supply or thereabouts, both can be on at the same time, when the input to a gate is at around mid rail. This happens at pin 11 twice every cycle of the oscillator. With fresh batteries, this takes a significant and unnecessary gulp of charge from the supply. D1 drops just enough voltage to significantly reduce this, while, unlike a regulator,  dissipating no standby power.

Note there is no capacitor at U1 pin 16. If you put one here, it will happily supply the unwanted gulp, and charge itself back up during the rest of the cycle. Bad capacitor! But 4000 CMOS is slow enough not to absolutely require decoupling directly at the chip.

As I said, 4000 CMOS is cool!

[Saskia]

not joining discord, you'llforgive me

[bd139]

not joining discord, you'llforgive me

Hope you feel better soon 

[tggzzz]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

LOL the one I’m friends with is a deeply cynical vicious sick and twisted individual. Conversion diverged into anal polyps and how good laughing gas is last time. Just how I like them 

You like anal polyps?!

Over time laughing gas knackers your bones and B12; that's why dentists don't use it any more. Ambulance crews can; when they gave it to me, I was transported back to childhood!
"Long-term exposure to high concentrations of nitrous oxide may cause megaloblastic bone-marrow depression and neurological symptoms" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12751548/

I haven't come across Udemy before. A quick glance reminds me of the "for Dummies" books.

I believe that traditionally Japanese wives have sole and complete authority over the family finances.

[Cerebus]

Not to mention all the variations for each IC number in terms of F, ACT, S (do love me a pun, however I can shoehorn it in) etc, then there's the MIL spec ones, ceradips, hermetically sealed space qualified jobbies, the variety is almost endless!

Gosh really? We'd never noticed... 😇

[tggzzz]

I guess D1 prevents SCR latchup when there's no battery and the voltage across C1 decays.

Nope.

4000B CMOS is specified down to 3V supply. Which means that both the P & N device thresholds must be less than that. So at 6V supply or thereabouts, both can be on at the same time, when the input to a gate is at around mid rail. This happens at pin 11 twice every cycle of the oscillator. With fresh batteries, this takes a significant and unnecessary gulp of charge from the supply. D1 drops just enough voltage to significantly reduce this, while, unlike a regulator,  dissipating no standby power.

Note there is no capacitor at U1 pin 16. If you put one here, it will happily supply the unwanted gulp, and charge itself back up during the rest of the cycle. Bad capacitor! But 4000 CMOS is slow enough not to absolutely require decoupling directly at the chip.

As I said, 4000 CMOS is cool!

Neat trick

[TERRA Operative]

I love you long time baby!

Is the firmware the only thing you want out?

As soon as I have a GPIB solution (isn't that the way to do it, or is it programmer on proms? ) I'll do what I can.

GPIB is easiest (I.E. the way do it, as I know how to do it this way) If you can get the NVRAM out using the instructions (I can help you with exact commands if needed), that would be good too, but the main one is the firmware. The NVRAM holds the options mostly which can be poked at and unlocked via GPIB later with a few simple commands anyway.

I believe that traditionally Japanese wives have sole and complete authority over the family finances.

This is a thing.....   

I have my own side funds for TEA gear besides the 'official' book keeping. 

[bd139]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

LOL the one I’m friends with is a deeply cynical vicious sick and twisted individual. Conversion diverged into anal polyps and how good laughing gas is last time. Just how I like them 

You like anal polyps?!

Over time laughing gas knackers your bones and B12; that's why dentists don't use it any more. Ambulance crews can; when they gave it to me, I was transported back to childhood!
"Long-term exposure to high concentrations of nitrous oxide may cause megaloblastic bone-marrow depression and neurological symptoms" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12751548/

I haven't come across Udemy before. A quick glance reminds me of the "for Dummies" books.

I believe that traditionally Japanese wives have sole and complete authority over the family finances.

Yeah nasty stuff. I experienced it when I broke my ankle via ambulance crew. Decided the pain was less annoying.

Udemy is quite good. Well some of the courses are.

In this case she had sole and complete authority over her ex husband's finances 

[AVGresponding]

Discord is warming up

[Specmaster]

And I'm in as co-author of the sequel "How to Live With a Japanese Wife and Survive"

I thought Japanese wimens were submissive and meek? No?

LOL the one I’m friends with is a deeply cynical vicious sick and twisted individual. Conversion diverged into anal polyps and how good laughing gas is last time. Just how I like them 

You like anal polyps?!

Over time laughing gas knackers your bones and B12; that's why dentists don't use it any more. Ambulance crews can; when they gave it to me, I was transported back to childhood!
"Long-term exposure to high concentrations of nitrous oxide may cause megaloblastic bone-marrow depression and neurological symptoms" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12751548/

I haven't come across Udemy before. A quick glance reminds me of the "for Dummies" books.

I believe that traditionally Japanese wives have sole and complete authority over the family finances.

Bang goes the TE budget then

[Cerebus]

Oh I did it again.  Bought a Tek 465B 

Oops, I did it again
I played with your parts
Got lost in the game
Oh, Tekie, Tekie,
Oops, you think I'll fix you
That I've got the right schematic
You're gettin' parted out

We're just going to have to start calling you Britney.

[Specmaster]

Discord is warming up

Apologies, but I won't be making it again tonight....