Test Equipment Anonymous

As I recall the TEA thread was rambling and more or less a world on its own. DJ was pleased it had so much traffic, but rarely looked at it. The discussions about none-TE related things, such as work benches, fizzled out in reasonable time. A fairly new member complained. One of the moderators who'...

I don't know if you participated in the blog TEA thread or not. If you pull up that thread starting around 19 August 2022 you'll see very heavy handled moderation which IMHO was completely unjustified. As I recall the TEA thread was rambling and more or less a world on its own. DJ was pleased it ha...

Temporary loss of some stations here in AKL NZ also on the AM bands while they replace old masts. One mast will be lost but both are down currently, fuck knows why they took them both down at the same time....probably to only have a single crane establishment cost....cheapskates ! While not far fro...

Producing the hack for a scope takes genuine software skills of a particular type, and some dedication. Applying the hack or independently produced licences may involve basic Linux skills, such as logging on via Telnet and deleting or renaming a file, or running a Python script, entering the serial...

I wouldn't say few sales over $1k, SDS2000X Plus is a good bit more but still great bang for buck and I prefer it over IMO the over-priced SDS1000X HD models. Hobbyists would all like the 10" display but that pushes you into SDS2104X Plus territory and those with the coin to spare will chose it...

Yeah but what would you do in my position ? ... Turning a blind eye has been my MO and they keep coming back for more products having saved a few bucks not needing to purchase options. There's nothing preventing a user modifying any equipment. Noticeable problems arise if there is a warranty claim....

............ Siglent must know perfectly well that there are means to generate unauthorised licence keys around, mainly used by amateurs. They can't say they approve, but they don't disapprove very strongly, because it generates more sales. That's why I don't really understand why they've turned to...

No doubt some pro's hack but they're normally one man bands with shallow pockets whereas the real pro's cough up for the BW and optional features they need. That's what I suspected. Startups and very small companies might sail close to the wind, but established companies, the military and governmen...

The higher cost professional products OTOH use V2 licensing which with some effort can be cracked but there are no online scripts available yet.....so sorta locked up tight for now making a clear distinction between hobbyist and pro models. I wonder why they changed tack. Is it your experience that...

................. It's always been clear to me that specsmanship and status was a large part of scope sales. I've no idea how Siglent and Rigol sales are divided between amateurs and professionals, but I'd like to know. They know perfectly well that their hobbling methods have been defeated and don...

Temporary loss of some stations here in AKL NZ also on the AM bands while they replace old masts. One mast will be lost but both are down currently, fuck knows why they took them both down at the same time....probably to only have a single crane establishment cost....cheapskates ! While not far from...

How One British Radio Engineer Intercepted the Secret Launch Frequencies of 60 Nazi V-1 Missiles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFYWpoQWRdI
23 mins

NZ mains is not for sissies
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.

What I've noticed is that there are parrot people, who are immensely enthusiastic about them, and owning one seems to be more a way of life than owning a pet. Parrots also have particular views about people. Some don't like boys, some don't like girls, and some take an immense dislike to certain pe...

I may try a trackerball. But the mice I particularly dislike are the ones abandoned in my shoes. Or eviscerated in the dark bit of the hall. Just be sure not to confuse the more ergonomic Trackman with a Trackball. With a Trackman all pointer manipulation is done with the thumb leaving the fingers ...

Never tried a Trackball only the more ergonomic Trackman and 100% agree these style of mouse are hard to beat on a busy bench. On the #1 workstation still using a USB Trackman that is showing its age as the microswitches sometimes miss a click but I now have spares should it get to a truly bothersom...

Primary computer is XP and talks GPIB to sixteen instruments. .............................................. Wireless mice are really useful in a lab, as are dinky keyboards. Do you have a GPIB card or a USB adapter? I hate mice and have always (since 1990) used a track ball . Wireless dinky keyboa...

Mike, try to find a TP-Link TL-WR802N N300 WiFi 4 Nano Router locally and they're quite cheap.
Configure it in Bridge mode to give access to your WiFi LAN for any device with a wired LAN connection.

I will admit that I haven't been in the habit of jumping on the Bantam's brake. Perhaps I should get into the habit, especially as there isn't room to fit a handle to the Bantam. But until I spot a 127 tooth gear at a sensible price, the Bantam is limited to Imperial threads. The Hobbymat has enoug...

That Harrison is very similar to my Bantam except for the screwcutting gearbox. The Bantam has a big three-phase plug on it that goes to a fixed inverter (same with BCA3 mill). Yes, happy with the torque/power argument. The Hobbymat usually runs at its maximum speed of 2000 rpm because it mostly do...

Fact or fiction ?

The Simple British Trick That Made Nazi Radio Towers Electrocute Their Own Crews Until Declassified
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4QvBOO2kFU

More poles on an electric motor = more torque and less RPM. My Harrison 12 lathe came fitted with a 3HP 3 Ph motor wired for 2 or 4 pole operation. Normal operation is 4 pole = 1440 RPM and 2 pole is 2880 RPM or thereabouts on a 50 Hz supply. (6 pole is ~960 and 8 pole ~720 RPM in other 3ph motors I...

WOW thanks lads for the card and tape history lesson. :clap: Never seen such up close but punched some card with a pen at HS which was sent away to be run somewhere Ahrs. We got marked if out code ran properly and how complex it may have been. IIRC we got a dot matrix printout back...well over 50 yr...

Just as an interest, what sorta card feed rate /s was achievable ?
How might that convert to a data baud rate ?

Ah yes, a cave would have a nice stable temperature and humidity too, making it pleasant in both summer and winter and allowing test gear to be stable. All my test gear backs onto a South-facing wall whose temperature oscillates wildly . Never thought of that when house-hunting. Not so in the south...