Test Equipment Anonymous

Enigmas have been in more than one museum we visited this vacation. None of the museums visited, however, have the same depth and quality of their Enigma collections as can be found at the museum of FRA, the Swedish sigint authority. That museum is very hard to get into; it is strictly by invitatio...

I've often been past this museum on the way back from the FRARS rally, but the museum is closed on Sundays. So today I took a detour after picking up the stereoscopic catalogue of (human) parts and assemblies. To get in you: park your car, and walk to the entrance present your passport stand on an X...

Shockingly, another instance of "putting all your eggs in someone else's basket, no matter how much you pay them, is still a bad idea." :roll: Greybeards learned that lesson in the 70s. When PCs/Apples became available, everybody was mightly pleased to be able to liberate their data from ...

This is interesting, a bit over my head to sort it out, but if this what he is saying is correct, then once you know what to look for then it should be easy to resolve. I t didn't take long for the "reboot in safe mode, use CLI to delete some files, reboot" procedure to be stated. One of ...

So bored and drunk after an extremely profitable couple of days "digging people out of the shit thanks to Crowdstrike" This is interesting, a bit over my head to sort it out, but if this what he is saying is correct, then once you know what to look for then it should be easy to resolve. I...

mnementh wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2024 7:11 pm 10MB is trivial today.

I have pictures bigger than that. They don't convey any more information than 200kB pictures, therefore the larger pictures are not beneficial.

I assume it must be some php-weenie built-in bullshit to screen out animated GIFs, as it clearly is not filesize-dependent. :roll: To play advocatus diaboli, why do you need >10MB? Very few pictures benefit from being >0.5MB; usually cropping and scaling still allows everything to be seen. In addit...

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2024 4:18 pm These days with the vast improvements in digital electronics, particularly DDS, definitely dated but still useful. Being analogue isn't all bad. Modern DDS AWGs can produce a lot of RFI, especially the cheap ones.

35 years ago, an HP DDS was classed as a munition. Export control is nothing new!

Playing with a Function gen with modulation is a bit magical and great fun! Make sure to have an audio-filter (simple RC LPF is good enough in a pinch) handy, so you can test-drive the sweep capability as well. Now, how to observe FM and AM modulation? My favourite is to build a high Q N-path bandp...

I've just narrowly avoided avoided buying another Tek 468. I went to £18, but someone was prepared to pay £22, plus uplift of course. Instead I've forked out for some gory (literally!) stereoscopic slides. I'll keep them for a while, then should be able to flip them for a profit. https://portal-imag...

Zenith wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 9:42 pm Greenweld - does anyone remember them?

Oh yes.

BiPak anyone?

Still have many ~BC108 I got from that kind of place.

Specmaster wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 12:35 pm

tggzzz wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:57 am I bought what I thought would be a lifetime's supply. Then TEA struck

Simples, just get yourself a nice desoldering gun, I've never regretting mine.

I have a Metcal iron and a couple of solder suckers for larger quantities of solder.

Happy enough, I'm happy. I may have exhausted my stock of 47µF and 10µF tantalums and there are still a few that will need changing at some point. Last time I looked, CPC was surprisingly cheap for tant beads. ... some very nice Chemtronics desolder braid (bought at the rally, have you seen how muc...

Also the manual common on the WWW may not match the equipment you have, at all. I have two 9917A frequency counters. The manual for the 9917 is nothing like them. The Quad 405-2 audio power amp I inherited appears (from the service manual) to have 7 different variants. Fortunately I don't have to l...

I've seen some weird things. My parents 1850 house had its mains cable emerge in the centre of the property. The next owners discovered it was a 3 phase supply! The round-pin 13 amp wall sockets were all disconnected; just as well since the vulcanised rubber insulation had disintegrated. Their prev...

Ha!

See post by me at top of previous page involving PS Waverley

Pretty much, yes. Those are very much edge cases, and in any case a prohibition notice is not necessarily easy to enforce on private property; however if there was to be an electrical fire, for example, in such a property after a notice had been issued, there might be serious legal consequences. Tw...

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/ca ... lAN5K2Q5K7
The common theme is too bloody true: distract the driver.
Touchscreens, lane sensors, zoned climate control, automatic headlights.

Insurance companies would check that and all sorts of other things to avoid paying out. I was once rear-ended in a queue for a roundabout. The other insurance company came round to look at the car. The first thing they checked was the tyres, which obviously couldn't have contributed to the accident...

Circumstances can be devised where a ring main supplying 90m² could be operating at or beyond its limits. Obviously, it's advisable to stay within the rules, and that's usually easy. Just so. It was the "any number" that surprised me. Fortunately freezers don't take much power, except for...

A failure code as would be reported on an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR). Specifically Classification code C1 (Danger present) Where an observation has been given a Classification code C1, the safety of those using the installation is at risk and immediate remedial action is requir...

I'm surprised that nowadays you can connect any number of sockets to a single ringmain, provided the area is <100m 2 . I presume the justification is that nowadays most appliances are <100W. I see these rules as being sensible guidance rather than something set in concrete. Extra sockets are usuall...

Yeah, lighting was the first application of electricity in the home. It was, I believe, standard practice to connect all appliances to the light socket. I'm surprised that nowadays you can connect any number of sockets to a single ringmain, provided the area is <100m 2 . I presume the justification ...

?C1? A failure code as would be reported on an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR). Specifically Classification code C1 (Danger present) Where an observation has been given a Classification code C1, the safety of those using the installation is at risk and immediate remedial action is r...

?C1? Not entirely sure but I think it refers to the Part P Building Regulations, That's my (ignorant) presumption too. where basically you're supposed to have a sparky in to do any electrical work more demanding than changing a light bulb. You might be OK with a degree in electronic engineering, be...