Test Equipment Anonymous

hoochie mama! I like it! but I wouldn't pay more than 25 bucks for one. in fact yesterday I gave a 1741 to a neighborhood college kid who just finished his first year and picked engineering science as his major. (was afraid he was gonna' pick physics). also gave him a 2A 40V regulated bench ps, a f...

Listed on my local CL as a "Tektronix 1725A". Duh.....

There are a few more Imperial units still in "everyday" use: miles (plus furlongs if you race the geegees!), mpg rather than l/100km (Imperial gallons, not the anaemic US gallon[1]), lbs (if you are a greengrocer wanting to make political points), feet and inches when related to bodies. B...

On a lighter note. Blondie is watching a TV show originating from the UK talking about weight loss. I was surprised to see that you Brits still measure body weight in terms of "Stones" (14 pound increments). Even the scales are calibrated in stones. So a person weighing 150 pounds is 10 st...

bd139 wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2026 9:29 am Tripped on this one during a discussion on Discord. Amused me at least (from LPWS):

Screenshot 2026-05-25 at 10.27.56.png

WTF?

That is a nice AC supply. Years ago I cobbled together this isolating supply from 2 salvaged transformers in series with a switchable output of approx 109V, 116V, and 123V. Limited to about 2 amps maximum. Do not adjust your set, the pix is indeed a little out of focus. :lol: https://imagizer.images...

Well at least when your famous delivery service, "Herpes", throws it over walls and such the contents won't break.

He really does think he owns the chair. Blondie's daughter came over and sat in the chair. Harley reached up with his paw and swatted her arm (no claws) as if to say "Get out of my chair".

We have a monster here.

If you ask nicely, he *MIGHT* let you use it, but only to preheat it for him, and he'll expect you to move when he wants it again. :lol: -Pat Not far from the truth. I was sitting in the chair and he jumped up on the arm and looked at me as if to say "why are you sitting in my chair?" The...

Got a new chair today and guess who claimed it?

EC8010 wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2026 4:59 pm I'll bet the verbal whipping your dad got from your mum hurt more.

I don't recall her saying anything.

When I was a kid my Father was working on a portable TV and had the chassis pulled away from the CRT. That meant that the ground strap to the aquadag coating on CRT was charging up with no place to go. (Inner and outer coating are a giant capacitor) He powered up the TV and it had a perfect pix. I p...

BU508A wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2026 2:49 pm It is the current that kills, not the voltage.

It takes less than 150ma to kill you if it goes across your heart.

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 ...

In form, basic function, and price point it's basically equivalent to my Heath IG-5280. Good for aligning IF's and basic RF work but not much else.

Did not realize there were so many mouse haters in here. An Amazon Basics wireless mouse works fine for me.

My lab rarely varies more than 10 degrees F (70F - 80F, 21C to 26C) with the sweet spot 75F. Good heat and A/C during the Summer. Air conditioning is rare in the UK. The heat and humidity are almost always acceptable. Yep, I'm aware of that. But lately you guys have had some nasty heat waves which ...

AVGresponding wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2026 5:07 am BT 5.3 max bitrate is 576kbps, so it can deliver decent audio, but video is out of the question, at least HD quality anyway

Thanks for that. I was going to Google it but you answered my questions.

My lab rarely varies more than 10 degrees F (70F - 80F, 21C to 26C) with the sweet spot 75F. Good heat and A/C during the Summer.

Handsome cat. And the lab's quite pretty too. I have a length of inverted guttering (I kid you not) over the fluoresecent tube over the bench. The guttering is lined with kitchen foil to make it reflective, and earthed to reduce interference. It is supported at each end by handcrafted bits of MDF b...

You guys are making me look bad. I gotta find some decent TE to work on. Been very lean here lately.

Bringing this thread back to the front for the benefit of those who weren't here 3 years ago when I first moved to this place and showing the amount of work it took to fit up the new lab. Plus, I've made some major changes to bench 2. The media PC which previously resided in the living room is now i...

More rambling... Even with EWR (Newark Airport) being 60 miles (95km) away the main landing glide slope goes directly over my place. They typically are at an altitude of approx 7000 ft (2100m) and depending upon cloud cover easily seen but always heard. During busy times every 3 - 4 minutes. At nigh...

I can imagine the pressure increases linearly as the wing moves in one direction, and decreases linearly as it moves in the other. At the transition there could be a whipcrack effect as the wings suddenly reverse, which would cause a sudden spike. I hypothesise such triangle wave with transition pe...

They flap their wings at the astonishing rate of 50Hz to 80Hz. It is audible but doesn't sound like a transformer hum. More like a buzz. I can imagine the pressure increases linearly as the wing moves in one direction, and decreases linearly as it moves in the other. At the transition there could b...