Fluke Friday - Going through the Fluke Collection

[bd139]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that vegetables and unwashed or poorly washed salad were bigger causes of food poisoning than anything else.

I consider the Harvester and Pizza Hut sneeze collector salad bars to be abhorrent anyway. Always a bad idea.

Delete "sneeze collector salad bars"

Standard advice in many parts of the world is “Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it.”.

After backpacking around India 40 years ago and drinking only Thum's Up and stewed sweet tea, a glass of plain cold water was the most memorable drink I've had. (The best hotel in Bombay distilled its own drinking water).

Fresh water is a problem in a lot of places. Surprisingly in Kygryzstan we had lots of fresh water straight out of streams from mountain run off. Was amazing. Best water I ever tasted. It was filtered through these. Didn't get sick once.

51CeqPmJdZL.jpg

However we were told at the end of the trip that some of it was contaminated with uranium potentially and we might want to have some iodine tablets.

This was written off as a joke a couple of hours later with the footnote that if we were 100 miles west in Mayluu-Suu, then that would actually be the case. Our guide thought this was hilarious as did I. bd140 did not

[Cerebus]

However we were told at the end of the trip that some of it was contaminated with uranium potentially and we might want to have some iodine tablets.

Which wouldn't do you much good as iodine-131 is only ~3% by mass of the decay chain of U-235 (1/2 life 700 million years), which itself is only 0.72% of natural uranium. So that's about 42 attograms per day produced per kg of fresh, undecayed, natural uranium, or 700 Becquerels if you prefer. Moreover iodine-131 has a half life of 8 days so disappears quite quickly.

So if there was enough natural uranium around to give you heavy metal poisoning there still wouldn't be enough iodine-131 around to measure, let alone give you radiological problems.

This was written off as a joke a couple of hours later with the footnote that if we were 100 miles west in Mayluu-Suu, then that would actually be the case. Our guide thought this was hilarious as did I. bd140 did not

Who probably still gave herself iodine poisoning with potassium iodide tablets at the first opportunity.

[25 CPS]

Of course you need to know if your oven is relatively accurate or not. I have an oven thermometer for that!

I don't know if I should post this in reply here or over in the main TEA thread but I just had a vintage oven tester come in:





The next time the oven gets switched on, I'm going to have this tester's thermocouple in there along with an ambient temperature probe for the Weber iGrill and see what they say.

[mansaxel]

I wouldn't consider being poisoned by a fresh puffer fish, incompetently prepared, to be exactly a hygiene matter.

I would consider it stupidity.

[mnementh]

"Volunteering to be a bell-end".

mnem
don't be a statistic.

[Zenith]

I wouldn't consider being poisoned by a fresh puffer fish, incompetently prepared, to be exactly a hygiene matter.

I would consider it stupidity.

It's an expensive delicacy.

Attitudes to food and risk vary greatly. Most people in the UK, including country people, wouldn't eat wild mushrooms of any description. We ate field mushrooms and never had the least problem. In some parts of the country Blewits and Shaggy Inkcaps (Lawyer's Wigs) are eaten. They are quite distinctive. In Italy gathering wild mushrooms is very popular. There's the odd casualty when people make mistakes.

[tggzzz]

I wouldn't consider being poisoned by a fresh puffer fish, incompetently prepared, to be exactly a hygiene matter.

I would consider it stupidity.

It's an expensive delicacy.

Attitudes to food and risk vary greatly. Most people in the UK, including country people, wouldn't eat wild mushrooms of any description. We ate field mushrooms and never had the least problem. In some parts of the country Blewits and Shaggy Inkcaps (Lawyer's Wigs) are eaten. They are quite distinctive. In Italy gathering wild mushrooms is very popular. There's the odd casualty when people make mistakes.

Wild mushrooms can be problematic since a button mushroom is almost identical to a button death cap or button destroying angel. And then there's agaricus xanthodermus, which will make you vomit.

Blewits are unmistakeable, but are another example of poisonous foods being sold in supermarkets (I've bought them in Waitrose, and they can traditionally be found in markets near Mansfield. Blewits contain a haemolytic agent that is inactivated by cooking.

Shaggy ink caps are a waste of time and effort, unless you like eating thick water.

I had some grifola frondosa last night; very nice too. I suspect it was cultivated.

Eating death caps is rather like high voltage electrocution: the doctors say they will try to keep you alive until your relatives have visited you.

[Zenith]

Shaggy ink caps are a waste of time and effort, unless you like eating thick water.

I had some grifola frondosa last night; very nice too. I suspect it was cultivated.

Eating death caps is rather like high voltage electrocution: the doctors say they will try to keep you alive until your relatives have visited you.

I've never tried Shaggy Ink Caps, but I've worked with a couple of people who've raved over them.

I've eaten Giant Puff Balls. They have a very delicate mushroom flavour. They are not really worth the trouble, but maybe some are more tasty than others.

Death Caps are notorious and cause more fatalities than any other mushroom.

[Cerebus]

I wouldn't consider being poisoned by a fresh puffer fish, incompetently prepared, to be exactly a hygiene matter.

I would consider it stupidity.

It's an expensive delicacy.

Attitudes to food and risk vary greatly. Most people in the UK, including country people, wouldn't eat wild mushrooms of any description. We ate field mushrooms and never had the least problem. In some parts of the country Blewits and Shaggy Inkcaps (Lawyer's Wigs) are eaten. They are quite distinctive. In Italy gathering wild mushrooms is very popular. There's the odd casualty when people make mistakes.

"You've been widowed three times?"
"Yes"
"How did your first husband die?"
"Ate some bad mushrooms."
"Ad the second?"
"Bad mushrooms."
"And the third?"
"Head injury. I hit him because he wouldn't eat his mushrooms."

[MED6753]

Holy thread derail Batman. It's Flukes, not pukes. Need more Flukes.

[MED6753]

And another one just because.

[bd139]

Blukes

Next time I'm going to paint a Tektronix brown in honour of Marconi and Philips.

[MED6753]

Blukes

Next time I'm going to paint a Tektronix brown in honour of Marconi and Philips.

Whatever boats your float.

[scl]

Fluke Friday service note: If you have a Fluke 8505A or 8506A it might be wise to check the power supply outputs. Each one has three trimpots for adjustment, and each of my three meters had one of those three trimpots fail open, sending the corresponding rail to its maximum output. After the third one I pulled all the pots and installed fixed resistors.

Here's a shot of the three, all showing the output from a 732A which was measured to be 10.000091 a couple months back. I think the bottom 8505A might have been adjusted recently, say a dozen years ago, the other 05A and the 06A haven't been touched this century.

[Zenith]

Welcome to the forum. An interesting first post and I hope the first of many.

As you may have noticed, we do tend to talk about a lot of things not strictly relevant to TE, and this is a welcome return to the core interest.

[MED6753]

Gee, I'll have to pull out my 8505A and check it. I did re-cap the PSU back in April 2020 and all was well at that time. I'll post up what I find.

[MED6753]

Here's my 8505A. It's a backup to my bench reference hp 3456A but I have noticed that the Fluke does drift more than the 3456A over an extended period such as 12 hours. It's last calibration status is unknown.

Anyway, all voltages were in spec except the 5.0V. Was reading 5.36V which is a little high for my liking. I was able to bring it down with the trim pot to 5.09V as shown. So the trim pot is OK. I assume the trim pots for the +12V and +15V are OK because those voltages were OK. I did not "poke the bear" and try to adjust them. Why fix what ain't broke.

[scl]

Zenith, thank you. I will try to be a bit more active. Probably averaged about one comment/year over at the old place, prior to the TEA blow-up there. Figured I 'd better finally say something here lest I be suspected of engaging in non-consensual relations with valves.

Med, the failure in the pots is an open between the resistive element and a pin, so it happens without warning and is not affected for better or worse by tweaking. The first time it happened to me was on the 5V rail, I walked into the lab to see random segments lit (I think, been a couple years) and it was obvious that my previously good working meter was pining for the fjords. I'm still amazed that no damage was done and it came back after the pot was replaced. Or at least no damage has shown up yet...
I agree with not adjusting things that don't need it. If I concentrate for a few minutes I could remember some of the disasters I caused by not leaving well enough alone.
It's possible that my three failures are the only ones that ever happened, just bad luck.
Same here, the 3456A is always on. It "seems" more stable than the flukes, someday I should log some data and make that sound a bit more intelligent. Never will happen unless something more than my mild(?) case of volt-nuttery requires it.

[TonyAlbus]

Fluke Friday ! sort of )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69gXoV6i8QI

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[bd139]

Oh no bought another Fluke

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[MED6753]

You always walk around in bare feet?

[bd139]

Yes. If you want more pics send $50 via PP

[Cubdriver]

Oh no bought another Fluke

IMG_0591.jpeg

I hate it when that happens!

-Pat

[bd139]

Oh no bought another Fluke

IMG_0591.jpeg

I hate it when that happens!

-Pat

It's a travesty isn't it?

[tggzzz]

Oh no bought another Fluke

Looks like it is cheaper than some slide rules.