Test Equipment Anonymous

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...

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...

Best way to prevent short term overloads triggering breakers is to fit D class (motor rated) breakers.

Power outages in rural areas are a lot more common and often only last a few minutes but sometimes an hour or 3. Big storm winds are our main risk from tree damage to the network....it's a pet hate of mine and anywhere along our road frontage I've ensured no tree can impact the infrastructure....I o...

Yup ~6hrs is all one can expect from the major connectivity suppliers.

But those that give a stuff will go to a bit of trouble to keep their systems alive.....that's if you can get a genset from a hire company before everyone else cleans them out.

"Making" and SBCs such as Raspberry Pi cater to the same sheddy, tinkering instinct the amateur electronics rags covered. It's a constructive interest and no bad thing. .... I know someone who came home to a freezer full of rotting food, because while she was on holiday, poorly thought ou...

I really can't see why anyone would wish to control a washing machine, dishwasher etc from a mobile phone, or pay extra for the feature. Those with grid tied solar installations use remote and/or delayed appliance activation when they are at work and getting good solar output rather than have to pa...

I am slipping. I have not bought any TE since last Summer. Shame on me. :shock: Slacker ! :o $20k's worth purchased yesterday. Not entirely for yourself, I guess..? :lol: Yup, correct. Things are getting pretty crazy when the day your previous $20k order turns up you need to order as much again.......

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 08, 2026 7:21 pm I am slipping. I have not bought any TE since last Summer. Shame on me.

Slacker !

$20k's worth purchased yesterday.

A DIY PSU is a right of passage and not that hard at all unless current limiting is required......escaping magic smoke always teaches us lessons....

America Had No Radio Crystals in 1941 — So Engineers Cut 30 Million From Brazilian Quartz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1_l8Qdsq5A

It's much more efficient to remove known dud LED's with a scalpel just pushed sideways between the pads to shatter the plastic and have just the pads remain...then hit them with the iron to remove them.....but Ali PCB's are a whole nuther level of difficulty. Had a porch lamp with 18V LED's on a Ali...

Yup ceramic was the term that I couldn't pull up after a few days away and a long drive home, some 900km and 4 visits to friends and customers.....14 hrs on the road in total after first dropping the grandson at school. I only use the K style tip for SMD passives and it invariably saves firing up th...

I prefer an iron for soldering (I use hot air for desoldering) too, and the small stuff is where the nail polish comes in While I'm happy to use an iron for desoldering small components, a hot air gun may be better for large components with many leads. I'm not comfortable using an iron for solderin...

WW2 EMF triggering of landmines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdYFNY3hAOg

Zenith wrote: ↑Tue Feb 03, 2026 12:40 am Stairs are there to be used by all and the footing should be intuitive, not like rock climbing.

It's a deathtrap.

Yup.

Too steep even if it was a traditional build.
The calcs for safe and good staircases are: 2x Rise + Going (tread) = 600mm (2ft) + 50mm (2")

I dropped the dodgy 1N4148s into my "scrap" bin but I could retrieve them. I decided it'd be quite a lot of work to build a test jig to get them to the right temperature to replicate the conditions inside the 3314A. I might fish them out if I decide that would actually be fun. A good frie...

Axial tantalum capacitors are a completely different beast; and akin to an aluminium electrolytic. Yup, I think they're used in place of electrolytic capacitors because they can tolerate high temperatures for long periods of time. You wouldn't normally stick capacitors that can dry out under the me...

Update, I'm now chatting to the son of the late designer of the 3314A on the fediverse. My 2N3904 repair appears to be holding. Oh god. All that work and it was the cheapest transistor in the whole unit! (maybe) Not abnormal. Once every other passive has be checked one must start asking questions o...