Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

<snip>
We did. 4 years ago we bought a brand-new Rav4. This is the closest thing in terms of reliability to a Saturn we could find nowadays; it is a pregnant Camry, which the entire world knows is (aside from consumables like tires, brakes & batteries) a 10-15 years zero-repairs vehicle if you do nothing but keep clean oil in it, and more if you actually take care of it.

We've had the Saturn since it was brand-new too; almost 23 years now. Over the course of its life, it provided collateral for no less than 3 life-altering loans, which we'd have been completely screwed without. And surviving a freak hailstorm, it paid out $6000 to us which allowed us to move and to close out one of those loans. Aside from a alternator and a radiator, the only repairs it has had are consumables of brakes, tires and batteries. Notice a pattern here...?

That is, until now. But I am a mechanic, and I know how to assess... it still has a year or three in it as long as we keep it for a 2nd vehicle. As primary transportation? Hell no. As a toy, or a 2nd vehicle? Hell yes.

Same as my brand new scope vs my 2465s and my 54645A.

So... just like you didn't know what you were missing not having a civilized semi-modern scope until you got that 54645D, I promise you Vince... you're missing out big time not having a semi-modern phone, or a semi-modern vehicle.

I think you've fallen into a really dangerous trap... a belief system built around the whole notion that everything new is cheap crap. The opposite is true with a lot of things; while almost everything nowadays is built to be disposable, many things are built now to be maintenance-free for the entirety of their design life. That is time you don't have to spend doing maintenance like "the good old days".

That is a thing of value in and of itself; it allows you to trade your single most valuable asset which is time, for mere easily replaceable money.

No matter how you slice it, that is a bargain.

As long as you're willing to step up and take that phone call from the here and now, rather than continue hiding out in the past.

mnem
"…You can linger too long in your dreams;
Say goodbye to the oldies but goodies,
'Cause the good ole days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems…"

Both you and BD do make some valid points but as I pointed out, it assumes that others have the same ability and opportunities at changing their lives and requires them to have the money in the first instance to be to pony up when required. Indeed, the same could go for myself, but what has happened to us along the way is done and dusted, we cannot go back and alter the course of history, all any of us can do is to play the hand that we have been dealt with. I know I dream of all the things I am going to do if my numbers ever come up in our national lottery. 

I know both sides of that equation viscerally, and I explained so very clearly. My point was that as long as you allow yourself to live in that closed-minded belief system that everything new is crap, you'll never ever be motivated to change it.

Vince does know better, and the need for a  semi-modern SmartPwn is slapping him in the face, and that belief system is literally costing him access to a much-needed job. How could I, as a friend, not point that out to him?

It is obvious from here that he needs to do whatever it takes to make that meeting... and as soon as he has a few paychecks under his belt, leverage that into some form of SmartPwn, be it new or used, that is adequate for today's business so he can himself conduct business today, not yesteryear.

I know this situation all too well. I've lived it, and clawed my way out from under a similar belief system. It is one of the hardest things to do; we cling so hard to such things.

mnem
"Humans are unique in that we can create all manner of things to be bothered by, and then spend all our time being bothered by those things."

[Vince]

Fuck cars and  smartphones, all junk.

Instead let's do something on topic and much more interesting : have these 3 lovely cans with lots of gold plated leads, how sexy.

Can't identify them. Does any old beard here have a clue  what they are ?

First two from the left, the two shortest ones, have 8 leads. The third / taller one has 10 leads no less.

Probably some vintage OP-amp or comparator or linear voltage regulator I assume, but well... Google didn't help me here.

EDIT : if you know the answer but DO NOT have an old beard, that's fine, I will listen none the less.

   

Your Harris Op-Amps are attached below. That Texas Instruments CT305 is being a total cunt. Even TI doesn't want to admit to it.

mnem
Maybe we need to call it a CunT305...?

Thanks BD and Dragon, I knew TEA was worth something ! 

I have already downloaded the two datasheet and had a look, then refreshed the TEA page and saw Dragon attached them, how kind 


So wow... can't believe it, this 2525 is a RACE CAR !!!! 120V/µs 20MHz ?!! 

The 2215 is his little brother, 12MHz 60V/µs, still not shabby eh !


Wow, 120V.... so far all the op-amps I garnered  were at best 20V for the TL054.. and have some that do LESS than one volt IIRC ! 

So 120V for a vintage part.. just wow....... wow.

You can bet your ass I will keep these two little guys preciously ! 

Can't help, I now feel the urge to wire them up and see that slew rate for myself ! Datasheet specifies what parameters to use to have a chance of getting that...

Too bad for the TI CT305 ... if anyone knows.... it says " 814 " at the bottom... maybe it's a date code, 1981 something ? So if I can find a 1981 scanned TI catalogue, or close to 1981, I might find the datasheet for that IC....

[Zoli]

ENOUGH TALKING !

Unless someone can tell me what my vintage IC's are, I have the regret to inform the audience that I will have to shut down this forum  !!

I don't know how to do that but I will pay BD to do it for me, I am sure he is capable of it, somehow. Just need to find the right stuff to bribe him with. Maybe a pack of floppies for his Apple laptop !   

To quote the dWagon, the CunT305 datasheet is printed only; look for TI catalogues between 1978 and 1981(the 814 below the model# could mean week 14 1978 or April 81).

[Cerebus]

Edit; Isn't the iPhone 7 really becoming EOL now, iPhone 5 is dead in the water for Apps, as is my iPad Air which a 2018 model with a lot of apps no longer supporting it, it has 32GB of storage with 22GB free. It is my understanding that the iPhone 7 was released Sept 2016 so is already 2 years older so will have the same issues?

Nothing like it. The previous model, the iPhone 6s (first sold sept 2015, end of sale sept 2018), runs the current version of iOS and is still getting updates. The iPhone 7 was introduced a year later and discontinued 2019. Apple guarantee at least four years of updates from end of sale and the previous two models got five and six years of updates respectively. So the iPhone 7 has got at least until Sept 2023 to run, and quite likely as far out as 2025.

I don't know what you're saying about the iPad as there was no iPad Air on sale in 2018. There was the iPad Air 2 with an end of sale in 2017, and the iPad Air 3 which wasn't on sale before March 2019. However, both are currently supported on the latest version of iOS and are receiving updates to this day. Only the original iPad Air (EOS March 2016) has fallen off the update cycle, limited to iOS 12.5.5.

I googled how to tell the age of my iPad and followed the instructions and was told to navigate to the General tab, where it gives me the model name and model number, serial number and the software version. There it gives me that model as being iPad Air currently running the latest iOS software of 12.5.5. Then the google site said to navigate to Legal tab, then onto Regulatory tab and then scroll down to very bottom and there almost hidden from view (in a ink colour designed to be hard to read) is the date of manufacture and that date is 2018-02-06. So that is where that information came from.

That sounds like an original iPad Air if it's stuck at iOS 12.5.5, which was on sale from Oct 2013 March to March 2016 The manufacturing date could be later (e.g. warranty replacement 'parts' units as opposed to 'sales' units) but that's not the year that one would use in describing the model). What's the model number physically printed on the back of the machine? A1447?

[mnementh]

Edit; Isn't the iPhone 7 really becoming EOL now, iPhone 5 is dead in the water for Apps, as is my iPad Air which a 2018 model with a lot of apps no longer supporting it, it has 32GB of storage with 22GB free. It is my understanding that the iPhone 7 was released Sept 2016 so is already 2 years older so will have the same issues?

Nothing like it. The previous model, the iPhone 6s (first sold sept 2015, end of sale sept 2018), runs the current version of iOS and is still getting updates. The iPhone 7 was introduced a year later and discontinued 2019. Apple guarantee at least four years of updates from end of sale and the previous two models got five and six years of updates respectively. So the iPhone 7 has got at least until Sept 2023 to run, and quite likely as far out as 2025.

I don't know what you're saying about the iPad as there was no iPad Air on sale in 2018. There was the iPad Air 2 with an end of sale in 2017, and the iPad Air 3 which wasn't on sale before March 2019. However, both are currently supported on the latest version of iOS and are receiving updates to this day. Only the original iPad Air (EOS March 2016) has fallen off the update cycle, limited to iOS 12.5.5.

I googled how to tell the age of my iPad and followed the instructions and was told to navigate to the General tab, where it gives me the model name and model number, serial number and the software version. There it gives me that model as being iPad Air currently running the latest iOS software of 12.5.5. Then the google site said to navigate to Legal tab, then onto Regulatory tab and then scroll down to very bottom and there almost hidden from view (in a ink colour designed to be hard to read) is the date of manufacture and that date is 2018-02-06. So that is where that information came from.

I think maybe you're seeing the date of the version of iOS it is running. All you have to do is Google the model number LASER-engraved on the back of it; there are shedloads of sites devoted to itemizing and cataloguing in teeth-aching detail everything Apple has ever made. My Daughter's A1893 6th Gen 9.7" iPad is often confused with the iPad Air 2; it can in fact be used with that model Otterbox.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

I think maybe you're seeing the date of the version of iOS it is running. All you have to do is Google the model number LASER-engraved on the back of it; there are shedloads of sites devoted to itemizing and cataloguing in teeth-aching detail everything Apple has ever made. My Daughter's A1893 6th Gen 9.7" iPad is often confused with the iPad Air 2; it can in fact be used with that model Otterbox.

mnem
 

There's an app called Mactracker (desktop and mobile) that makes it painless to check all the minutiae of which model is which, what it supports and so on.

Edit: although it's called Mactracker, it in fact goes right back to the Apple I.

[mnementh]

Why would I install a app for such a trivial thing?

Typing A1893 into any open browser tab gives me oodles of hits; I just look for the one from everymac.com :

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/ipad/specs/apple-ipad-9-7-inch-6th-gen-early-2018-a1893-wi-fi-only-specs.html

The only thing that page doesn't tell me is the size of the storage on my particular unit; and I know I splurged for the 128GB model.

mnem
There's a un-app for dat. 

[Zucca]

In the UK gas is much cheaper than electricity, and is commonly used for central heating, water heating, and cooking.

I have two problems with gas.

1)

Look at the efficiency of my gas water heater:



I can't sleep at night when I thing that 38% of my DHW gas (bill) is going to heat up the sky/stars.

2)



BTW: I adore climate town YT channel.

That's why I am switching to a Rheem Pro Terra

[Zucca]

I hate looking at America which is entirely built on energy usage. That's going to go to shit very vey quickly when it does go.

YMMV but consider security/risk first. The real cheapskate can see the horizon, knows what is going to cost them everything in the long run and doesn't care about the best priced bananas in the supermarket or the 70€ android because they are insignificant really. The cheapskate is only scared of unexpected expenses, uncalculated risks and unreliable technology.

AMEN!

[Specmaster]

Edit; Isn't the iPhone 7 really becoming EOL now, iPhone 5 is dead in the water for Apps, as is my iPad Air which a 2018 model with a lot of apps no longer supporting it, it has 32GB of storage with 22GB free. It is my understanding that the iPhone 7 was released Sept 2016 so is already 2 years older so will have the same issues?

Nothing like it. The previous model, the iPhone 6s (first sold sept 2015, end of sale sept 2018), runs the current version of iOS and is still getting updates. The iPhone 7 was introduced a year later and discontinued 2019. Apple guarantee at least four years of updates from end of sale and the previous two models got five and six years of updates respectively. So the iPhone 7 has got at least until Sept 2023 to run, and quite likely as far out as 2025.

I don't know what you're saying about the iPad as there was no iPad Air on sale in 2018. There was the iPad Air 2 with an end of sale in 2017, and the iPad Air 3 which wasn't on sale before March 2019. However, both are currently supported on the latest version of iOS and are receiving updates to this day. Only the original iPad Air (EOS March 2016) has fallen off the update cycle, limited to iOS 12.5.5.

I googled how to tell the age of my iPad and followed the instructions and was told to navigate to the General tab, where it gives me the model name and model number, serial number and the software version. There it gives me that model as being iPad Air currently running the latest iOS software of 12.5.5. Then the google site said to navigate to Legal tab, then onto Regulatory tab and then scroll down to very bottom and there almost hidden from view (in a ink colour designed to be hard to read) is the date of manufacture and that date is 2018-02-06. So that is where that information came from.

That sounds like an original iPad Air if it's stuck at iOS 12.5.5, which was on sale from Oct 2013 March to March 2016 The manufacturing date could be later (e.g. warranty replacement 'parts' units as opposed to 'sales' units) but that's not the year that one would use in describing the model). What's the model number physically printed on the back of the machine? A1447?

Yes indeed it is an iPad Air 1, model is A1474 as printed on the back cover, but according to the model number in the settings menu it is MD768B/B for which I can find zero information.

EDIT:
All the information I can find for the model number A1474 is that the other model name/number is MD785LL/A   

[vk6zgo]

y'all got me playing with my 54622d ....

You horrible tease! No pics of the component side, or the main PCB... or the component side of the main PCB... 

mnem
*toddles off to polish his wood*

That's an interesting euphemism!

[Specmaster]

y'all got me playing with my 54622d ....

You horrible tease! No pics of the component side, or the main PCB... or the component side of the main PCB... 

mnem
*toddles off to polish his wood*

That's an interesting euphemism!

That is precisely what I thought, but thought twice about asking, discretion being the better part of valor etc 

[Cerebus]

Yes indeed it is an iPad Air 1, model is A1474 as printed on the back cover, but according to the model number in the settings menu it is MD768B/B for which I can find zero information.

I don't know why Apple chose to describe that as "Model Number" in the UI when it's what they describe everywhere else as an "Order Number" i.e. the number you have to quote to get a model number A1447 with the right options, country specific stuff and so on. If you tap the actual displayed order code in that field it changes to the actual model number. Go figure...

[vk6zgo]

Step two on the tube amp.

Tube sockets are mounted, so a mock-up on how things will look (minus the output transformers).
I'll have to find another voltage regulator tube so they match.

Do you have those anode caps as well?

I have these ones at the moment.
I might still use different HV rectifier tubes without the top-cap though, not 100% sure yet... Depends on how dangerous I feel.

Why have you got recessed valve bases, are you planning to put coloured LEDS in them to give a low glow to the amp?

It reminded me of how 6146 tubes use to be mounted by some manufacturers---- IIRC to shield the anode end from the grid to make it more stable.

[Cubdriver]

Nothing like it. The previous model, the iPhone 6s (first sold sept 2015, end of sale sept 2018), runs the current version of iOS and is still getting updates.

Yep 6s here working like a champ and does everything I need. But will upgrade eventually.

My current phone is the original iPhone SE (which is basically a 6s in a 5 sized case). I got it specifically because it was the physically largest iPhone I could tolerate and as a Mac user of many years it was time that I gave in and just accepted that if I wanted a phone and computer that would work together (after many failures with Android working with any computer) I had to get an iPhone.

I'm upgrading when I'm forced to and not a minute sooner, unless by some miracle Apple realise that there are people who want a phone that fits a pocket comfortably and are content to leave it there 99% of the time.

Yes, yes, yes!  A thousand times this!  I’m currently using an original SE as well - bought it from the Bay just over a year ago when my long abused 5S finally gave up the ghost.  I too want a pocketable phone, not an iPad that makes phone calls.  Bigger is not always better, in the case of cell phones it’s a liability in my opinion as it it’s much more prone to breakage the larger and thinner it gets, and I don’t have clown pockets that can hold a coffee table book.

Sadly it seems I’m in the minority here as it seems with every new iteration they get closer to the size of a sheet of plywood.   

-Pat

[Kosmic]

For the nixie tubes lover, this one seem to be cheap (40$). Not sure why someone hacked-in a 7 segments display ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134158692838

[vk6zgo]

You can't discuss PAL or NTSC in terms of pixels, they are analog standards not digital. I know where you are coming from, there ARE difgital standards that are basically equivilent to PAL and NTSC and can be displayed on analog monitors but they are not PAL or NTSC (ignoring the fact that PAL ant NTSC are in fact colour / color encoding standards)

Pixels were defined back in the day, as the smallest picture element (hence "pixel")that could be uniquely displayed by a TV system having a given limit of number of resolution lines in both vertical & horizontal dimensions.

Horizontal resolution in an analog TV system is determined by the system frequency response, & vertical resolution by the number of active scan lines.(which become the "resolution lines" in the vertical direction.)

The ideal was for the resulting "pixel" to be "square", but due to channel bandwidth limitations, most systems had poorer horizontal resolution, causing the "pixel" to be "rectangular" instead of "square".

An important exception was the UK 625 line system which had equal vertical & horizontal resolution because they used 6MHz wide video bandwidth, instead of the 5MHz used in other 625 line services, making the transmitted signal incompatible with such systems.

Along came digital, & "pixel" was repurposed to mean something a bit different.(or very different if the term is being used by the Sales Dept )

[mnementh]

y'all got me playing with my 54622d ...   

You horrible tease! No pics of the component side, or the main PCB... or the component side of the main PCB... 

mnem
*toddles off to polish his wood*

That's an interesting euphemism!

That is precisely what I thought, but thought twice about asking, discretion being the better part of valor etc 

What euphemism? I was going to put another coat of varnish on that table...

mnem
I woke up with wood...

[xrunner]

For the nixie tubes lover, this one seem to be cheap (40$). Not sure why someone hacked-in a 7 segments display ?

Is it for the count in that position - 0 or 1? Looking at the pics on Ebay I think the display element there is bad and they hacked that jacked-up LED in there ... 

[med6753]

For the nixie tubes lover, this one seem to be cheap (40$). Not sure why someone hacked-in a 7 segments display ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134158692838

What a sad looking steaming pile. I'd be ashamed to display that in my lab. 

[mnementh]

In the UK gas is much cheaper than electricity, and is commonly used for central heating, water heating, and cooking.

I have two problems with gas.

1)

Look at the efficiency of my gas water heater:



I can't sleep at night when I thing that 38% of my DHW gas (bill) is going to heat up the sky/stars.

2)



BTW: I adore climate town YT channel.

That's why I am switching to a Rheem Pro Terra

Except that generating and delivering an equivalent amount of heat as electricity is an order of magnitude less efficient than burning the natural gas directly to heat your food or water. No matter what mumbo-jumbo they're spouting, you still need to expend a certain amount of kilocalories to heat a galllon of water or to cook a dozen eggs.

You want to really save energy and minimize your CF, get a more efficient washer and dryer and keep the gas heater and stove. Get a more efficient gas water heater; current models extract so much of the heat they vent through 2inch PVC.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

For the nixie tubes lover, this one seem to be cheap (40$). Not sure why someone hacked-in a 7 segments display ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134158692838   

IIRC, that "digit" is just a long neon bulb for a "1". I don't believe there is an actual digit, is there?

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a nixie mallet*

[Kosmic]

For the nixie tubes lover, this one seem to be cheap (40$). Not sure why someone hacked-in a 7 segments display ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134158692838

What a sad looking steaming pile. I'd be ashamed to display that in my lab. 

I'm sure you could do wonders with a little bit of blue paint ? 

[med6753]

For the nixie tubes lover, this one seem to be cheap (40$). Not sure why someone hacked-in a 7 segments display ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134158692838

What a sad looking steaming pile. I'd be ashamed to display that in my lab. 

I'm sure you could do wonders with a little bit of blue paint ? 

Nah, but perhaps a BFH. 

[Kosmic]

Well there you go. Incidentally the probe look like an instrument she would use.