Test Equipment Anonymous

Robert wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2026 7:51 pm I'm having trouble with private messages. I was conversing with EC8010 and now my messages are just sitting in the "outbox". Anyone got any ideas?
And EC8010, I'm not ignoring you and my faith was justified
Robert.

I've sent you a PM.

Title: Test
Contents: Just a test.

I use Linux Mint 21.1, Xfce and Firefox. I run the updates manually about once a week. I've never had the least problem with PMs, or trouble with passwords. Messages do sit in the outbox until they've been read. There are notifications on incoming PMs and replies to posts. I haven't looked into whet...

LOL - As much as I like the concept of a fused mains plug, I still prefer my 'dangerous' NEMA 5-15Ps - they're less likely to damage things in shipment, and don't do their imitation of caltrops when they fall on the floor. As bad as it is finding cat barf with my bare foot while enroute to the bath...

That HP is very tidy and elegant. One of the rare opportunities to feel annoyed with British mains sockets, as you'd be lucky to fit just one on that front panel and even then you'd have to move the knob off-centre and use all sorts of bevel gears to get the driveshaft back to the middle of the var...

It's a neater unit than my Lyons Regavolt... Agreed. Mine's a 10A Berco Regavolt. It's jolly heavy. Looking at it for the first time in a year or more, mine's a 6A, (1440 kW) which should be enough for most of us. It does have a plate saying it's a Berco Regavolt. I looked into it a long time back ...

Yes jelly babies are still made. https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/search?query=jelly%20babies Years ago they'd stock them in big jars, weigh them out and put them in a paper bag. I haven't see a shop that does that for years. The local shops sell sweets in bags, There are about 50 types; pear drops,...

It's a neater unit than my Lyons Regavolt, which works very well, but is just the variac in the usual round case with a huge dial/control on the top. I don't use it much, but sometimes there's no substitute. I must put it on a wooden base and add an enclosure for at least a voltmeter. The dial shoul...

I can't think of anything quite like that, but I have heard stories. I've had orders from CPC, the Farnell sister company, turn up in a box outsized for the contents. I think it's a consequence of dealing with a bureaucracy, where there are competing boxes to be ticked and as long as the order is se...

Well, well, well. For a while now I have been presuming "the lights will go out", due to any/all of ........... People claim I'm too pessimistic; I hope they are right. But I've been to IET talks by the engineers responsible for energy supply, and they confidently state the lights will go...

There are a few links at the bottom of that Wikipedia page and a couple talk about the Mainline connection, but there are no recent dates. It says they rescued a load of stock and tooling. It was in the Mainline HQ and warehouse in Leicester. In 2005 there was a fire and much of the stock was destro...

Just flipping through CPC online, it seems a lot of standoffs are very expensive for what they are. The Jackson Bros tag standoffs look very high quality. The kind of thing you'll find in military kit from the 50s/60s. Tag strips were a mainstay of electronics in the valve era. In the last days of M...

My mistake. Standoffs or spacers. Little plastic or metal things, usually tapped or with a threaded section. Used to mount circuit boards, tag strips etc. Sold by Farnell etc, but often surprisingly expensive.

It's worth looking out for BNC sockets, tag strips, offsets and other things like that, in the boxes of assorted junk at swapmeets. Sometimes they turn up real bargains.

It's just occurred. It could be done by loading Qubes OS onto another SSD. It wouldn't need anything fancy to try it. The BIOS could be used to select the boot device and it would be completely separate from the main system I rely on to work. 256GB SATA SSDs used to be about £25 for an OK, but not s...

There is a FOSS nVidia driver for those with an objection to closed source blobs. I don't use it because it's noticeably slower than the proprietary version, but it works. You can swap to it and back using a GUI app. Other than that, if you are not into gaming, or only a little light gaming, video c...

Tails is another specialised Debian distro with selected software. So nothing you can't add to some other distro yourself, but obviously more convenient. Qubes OS looks interesting. I haven't looked into nVidia problems, but it occurs that since it runs a string of virtual machines, it's going to so...

That's basic stuff built into the fabric of http. Add cookies, and most of us can't be bothered to reduce them to the bare minimum, and other means of tracking and profiling you. There's a big business in harvesting and selling your profile for directed advertising and less legitimate uses. If you f...

Adrenalin is released following trauma. I've noticed that after a near miss in a car, say someone pulled out and I had to brake sharply, I've felt an adrenalin rush. Since there's no real threat, it's a nuisance to be wound up like that. After a minute or two it wears off and everything seems strang...

Apparently, a shock can cause the release of chemicals into the blood stream that can kill up to 24 hours later, but prompt treatment can prevent this. Any reference for that mechanism? Sounds like an old wive's tale, but death by electrocution doesn't present ready opportunities for ethical resear...

Part of the danger of getting shocks is the involuntary movement that follows. A shock from a spark plug can cause a hand to come in contact with dangerous moving parts. A shock from a CRT could cause an awkward fall onto something.

NZ mains is not for sissies :o 235VAC single phase....unpleasant and life threatening if across the heart. 415VAC between phases......if you're lucky you only get a zap between a phase and ground = 235VAC just to check you're still awake. When I looked into this a few years back, I recall there was...

I've always thought of getting a shock from 240V mains as something of a rite of passage. Something I've never managed to do is use a DMM to measure the resistance of the mains. There's a reason why probe sets come with those little push on shrouds, that are often thrown away or end up at the back o...

It seems murky and could be anything. As I understand it, individuals could always buy small numbers of parts direct from most makers, although I'd guess most dealt with distributors who are geared up for that. It's reasonable that makers would not want to deal in small quantities as a purely busine...

Also gone are the days when you could apply for and they'd send a sample.

The last time the sample came, but after followed a telephone conversation with a charming Swiss gent, who wanted to know what my production ramping schedule was, and offered the services of a team of integration engineers.

The "Curcuit" for this RF signal generator is suspect, the JFET Q1 doesn't appear to have anything but a capacitor connected to its drain. When I was looking this up on the web, there was some talk that the circuit around the FET was wrong in most downloadable manuals, but the Leader manu...