Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[MED6753]

Batten down the hatches, turn on the A/C, and stay the hell inside.

[BU508A]

Batten down the hatches, turn on the A/C, and stay the hell inside.

bd139 would approve!

[tggzzz]

it has been 29C here, 33C near London, looks like bits of France hit 38C. Definitely pants[1] and beer weather. RH is 50-60% so relatively tolerable.

No aircon, unless you count an electric fan.

[1] UK meaning, of course.

[MED6753]

it has been 29C here, 33C near London, looks like bits of France hit 38C. Definitely pants[1] and beer weather. RH is 50-60% so relatively tolerable.

No aircon, unless you count an electric fan.

[1] UK meaning, of course.

What is the UK meaning of "pants"? Pants as in a wearable item or panting such as breathing heavy?

[tggzzz]

it has been 29C here, 33C near London, looks like bits of France hit 38C. Definitely pants[1] and beer weather. RH is 50-60% so relatively tolerable.

No aircon, unless you count an electric fan.

[1] UK meaning, of course.

What is the UK meaning of "pants"? Pants as in a wearable item or panting such as breathing heavy?

Wearable item. With the exception of Superman (who is famously sartorially confused), walking down a street wearing only pants can be grounds for being arrested.

[vk6zgo]

it has been 29C here, 33C near London, looks like bits of France hit 38C. Definitely pants[1] and beer weather. RH is 50-60% so relatively tolerable.

No aircon, unless you count an electric fan.

[1] UK meaning, of course.

What is the UK meaning of "pants"? Pants as in a wearable item or panting such as breathing heavy?

Wearable item. With the exception of Superman (who is famously sartorially confused), walking down a street wearing only pants can be grounds for being arrested.

The parks will be full of semi-naked Poms working on their melanoma!

[tautech]

What is the UK meaning of "pants"? Pants as in a wearable item or panting such as breathing heavy?

Wearable item. With the exception of Superman (who is famously sartorially confused), walking down a street wearing only pants can be grounds for being arrested.

The parks will be full of semi-naked Poms working on their melanoma!

Heatwave for the Poms seem now sent to the Yanks in NY where 34C is forecast......nothing special, just a good old warm day in Perth.

[tggzzz]

Wearable item. With the exception of Superman (who is famously sartorially confused), walking down a street wearing only pants can be grounds for being arrested.

The parks will be full of semi-naked Poms working on their melanoma!

Heatwave for the Poms seem now sent to the Yanks in NY where 34C is forecast......nothing special, just a good old warm day in Perth.

Mid-winter, we note

Even so, being next to the sea moderates the extremes compared with, say Coober Pedy.

[tautech]

The parks will be full of semi-naked Poms working on their melanoma!

Heatwave for the Poms seem now sent to the Yanks in NY where 34C is forecast......nothing special, just a good old warm day in Perth.

Mid-winter, we note

Even so, being next to the sea moderates the extremes compared with, say Coober Pedy.

Yeah now Perth is a little chilly, just 16C but Jan temps are normally double that.
Last we were there we left 42C for mid 20's back in AKL.

Hoped to catch up with vk6zgo but it didn't happen, maybe this Xmas when we plan to get across the Tasman to WA again.

[25 CPS]

Batten down the hatches, turn on the A/C, and stay the hell inside.

The air conditioning ran flat out here until about 3:45 AM. It's been cycling since, now that the heat's finally started to break.

[25 CPS]

Here's some random Saturday Heathkit test equipment that I took pictures of for someone:





The HP 211AR's still sitting apart on the bench waiting for me to get back to it. I did finally get to the store and picked up fuses and fuse holders so hopefully a power test will be possible soon.

[MED6753]

The HP 211AR's still sitting apart on the bench waiting for me to get back to it. I did finally get to the store and picked up fuses and fuse holders so hopefully a power test will be possible soon.

I'm very curious to see if you have symmetry issues like I did.

[25 CPS]

The HP 211AR's still sitting apart on the bench waiting for me to get back to it. I did finally get to the store and picked up fuses and fuse holders so hopefully a power test will be possible soon.

I'm very curious to see if you have symmetry issues like I did.

Same here - that’s the million dollar question. I’m debating measuring off the capacitors you ended up changing for that to see if they’ve moved off value before attempting a power test. Let me see if I can deal with the fuse and power cord situation on the 211 when I get home from work and I’ll try to spin it up.

[bd139]

Minor rant. Things always happen at once.

It's Monday and we already have just today ... viewing a new rental and bagging it quick because my current landlord is a wanker, organising moving with pickfords, eldest's boyfriend currently conked out on fentanyl post-surgery after badly broken arm being unbroken, organising eldest's graduation stuff on thursday, obtaining a suit (urgh) for the aforementioned graduation, results day at OU, full day of work and a new side mission of event organiser on a rather popular meetup group which has taken 30 minutes of dealing with humans. THOSE humans. We are running a trip to the MI5 exhibition at The National Archives so will be interesting. Need a holiday.

Still in that, managed to spend a few minutes on the latest TE turd to come floating past me... £22 for some TTL tinkering is a good deal. Plus it's 5 whole digits which will offend all the time nuts (it's actually 8 but not at once).

IMG_6814.jpeg

IMG_6817.jpeg

Quick swapping things around suggests the LED displays are bad. I'm not going to get to even look at this until I've moved house just after 16th September however.

Also obtained a nice little box of magic for the sum of £11.29 as well in the form of a hollow state 100W VHF/UHF amplifier for airport ground use. Nice box, some reverse engineering fun and of course a couple of ornaments for the new house inside it.

IMG_6787.JPG

IMG_6788.JPG

IMG_6789.JPG

The amplifier, as not noted in the photos was made by my former employer in the factory I worked in.

[nixiefreqq]

didn't you used to be the proud owner of an hp 5334b?

what would compel you to replace it with that "thing"?

we know you prefer counters without fans........but geeeeeze.

in future consult with a time nut before giving in to an impulse that leads to this kind of shameful situation.




ps it is not just because your "thing" is non-nixie. it's because there are much better low cost, no fan, small form factor counters floating around.

IMG_9043a.JPG

[Zenith]

what would compel you to replace it with that "thing"?

I'd guess it caught his eye as a bit of junk to play with, as a diversion from the other things that crowd his hours.

[tggzzz]

Minor rant. Things always happen at once. ... viewing a new rental and bagging it quick because my current landlord is a wanker ... Need a holiday.

I'm so glad I don't have to rent in today's market. What went wrong this time, or is it a case of 99% of landlords being wankers?

Once you've cleared your current workload, whatever is left will feel like a holiday. (Unless anything in the fintech industry is involved )

The amplifier, as not noted in the photos was made by my former employer in the factory I worked in.

Oi tinks I spots "Cossor Electronics" in t'photos.

[nixiefreqq]

what would compel you to replace it with that "thing"?

I'd guess it caught his eye as a bit of junk to play with, as a diversion from the other things that crowd his hours.

I get that.

am guilty myself of spending months in search of a fault. then when restored to its original function you realize it was a piece of crap when built, and toss it in the nearest dumpster.

but that illness is not really TEA. does it have a name?

[tggzzz]

am guilty myself of spending months in search of a fault. then when restored to its original function you realize it was a piece of crap when built, and toss it in the nearest dumpster.

Or hamfest, e.g. my recent "Fluke quality" experience.

Which reminds me I must fondle and massage my HP1740A's delay line again, to restore its performance.

[nixiefreqq]

last month they sent a kid out to install my new fiber network interface.

he commented on the stacks of nixie counters in the basement and mentioned that he had seen one in the Oppenheimer movie. so we went down stairs and played with a couple. it was like watching Indiana Jones finding lost ancient treasure.

was tempted to give him a back breaking 5245L but instead sent him home with a 5326a. the poor kid mumbled something about having to put it in with his musical gear so that the new bride would not spot it.

poor bastard......am not proud of possibly infecting an innocent youngster. but it made swmbo's day to see dusty junk going out the door for a change.

ps 300 Mbps fiber is sweeeeeet (compared to my old 10 Mbps dsl which never tested faster than 3 Mbps).

[Robert]

Doing a TE shuffle tomorrow.
Trying to downsize and as my HP 8753B VNA has been made redundant by the JDSU JD745 (4GHz) it's been sold. Buyer is 3 hsours drive away and was going to collect it. Then in the middle of discussions I noticed a HP 8703A "Lightwave Analyser" on ebay. Collection only and 3 hours away. Now if you take the optical box off the bottom of the 8703A you get a 8520C 20 GHz VNA (with slightly reduced bottom end 130MHz rather than 50).
So I was the only bidder on the 8703A and it's location is only 8 miles from where I'm dropping the 8753B. The buyer of the 8953B is paying for the fuel
I've not saved any space but have increased my capability (I have a couple of 10GHz filters to make) and came out with positive cashflow....
Downside is I now have to get some better 3.5mm / SMA calibration components....

[Zenith]

what would compel you to replace it with that "thing"?

I'd guess it caught his eye as a bit of junk to play with, as a diversion from the other things that crowd his hours.

I get that.

am guilty myself of spending months in search of a fault. then when restored to its original function you realize it was a piece of crap when built, and toss it in the nearest dumpster.

but that illness is not really TEA. does it have a name?

Collecting? Inability to resist a "bargain"? Dislike of ewaste? It shades into Hoarding Disorder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarding_disorder

A lot of it wasn't crap in the first place, it was respectable by the standards of the time, but its performance has been vastly superceded by later products.

Part of it is working out what the problems are and fixing them, which is the interesting bit. The actual utility of the item often doesn't count for much.

Some things which have a following leave me cold; 1980s microcomputers, Heathkit gear, Sinclair rubbish, and a string of other things which people are interested in.

[bd139]

didn't you used to be the proud owner of an hp 5334b?

what would compel you to replace it with that "thing"?

we know you prefer counters without fans........but geeeeeze.

in future consult with a time nut before giving in to an impulse that leads to this kind of shameful situation.

ps it is not just because your "thing" is non-nixie. it's because there are much better low cost, no fan, small form factor counters floating around.


IMG_9043a.JPG

My TE ownership is described in Emperor Ming's wedding vows.

[bd139]

what would compel you to replace it with that "thing"?

I'd guess it caught his eye as a bit of junk to play with, as a diversion from the other things that crowd his hours.

It's TTL, well documented, cheap and broken. Perfection!

[bd139]

Minor rant. Things always happen at once. ... viewing a new rental and bagging it quick because my current landlord is a wanker ... Need a holiday.

I'm so glad I don't have to rent in today's market. What went wrong this time, or is it a case of 99% of landlords being wankers?

Once you've cleared your current workload, whatever is left will feel like a holiday. (Unless anything in the fintech industry is involved )

Well the guy bought a house in Amersham and over-extended his finances a little bit too much so now he has to sell this BTL property up rather quickly to cover his arse before the whole house of cards falls down. He's a nice guy and has been unbothersome, but complete muppet when it comes to his own finances. The agents involved are truly arseholes though so the limitation of risk on their money grabbing is basically "fuck them over before they fuck me".

I'm off to Warsaw for a long weekend with some local friends just after I've moved and will be meeting up with a couple of Belarussian former-colleagues so that'll be as close as I get to a holiday for a bit.

The amplifier, as not noted in the photos was made by my former employer in the factory I worked in.

Oi tinks I spots "Cossor Electronics" in t'photos.

You do indeed. Owned by Raytheon of course. I started at Cossor and left after the Raytheon rebrand which involved introduction of all the Americanisms like Six Sigma and Dilbert Ethics Challenge.

Data sheet for the amplifier https://radiohistory.uk/COSSORCGR1020.htm