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

[Specmaster]

was at a municipal meeting the other day where some of the commissioners said they did not have to worry about recommending approval for solar PV systems because in a couple of years we will have all the fusion electricity we need.

I would had explosed and start to yell at them with some italian horrific words....
Ukraine war did not taught the lesson to everybody. Independence is the key, even on a small scale.
Everybody should go solar and have big batteries at home.... regardless what will happen, power will be there for you.

The best solutions are a mix of both grid and local via solar etc and besides the Ukraine war effect, they must also break the linkage between the cost of fuel oil / gas / electric so that would reduce the raging inflation at a stroke and the world needs to find a way that any country that deliberately targets power infrastructure such as a nuclear power plant, which puts innocent people at huge risk, are automatically dog piled and the authorities of that country are removed from power and tried as war criminals.

[mnementh]

More expensive lights like you're talking aboot, I'm sure they can afford a proper Δ-peak charge circuit for NiMH. But everybody, even Wally World, sells a dozen different versions of these Chinesium walkway lights, etc that all use the very basic charge & Dawn/Dusk circuit found in these POS ornaments.

The lights I'm talking about are walkway lights costing 50p and have a button cell, could be NiCad, could be NiMH, or cost somewhere between £5 and £10, and have a unit with an AA cell, which is a 600mAh NiMH. They run a string of about 50 LEDs. They have a special chip and a buck convertor and no trace of a Δ-peak charger.

NiCad cells have some advantages, but their use is discouraged for obvious reasons.

Except they are not being discouraged. As I said, they have enjoyed quite a resurgence of late in just this niche market. Whether we like the idea or not, they are all over the place out in the wild, and are not going away any time soon.

And I'd bet you a buck-converter that "special chip" is a purpose-built BMS for a small solar cell and a small NiMH battery.

mnem
moo. or don't.

[mnementh]

was at a municipal meeting the other day where some of the commissioners said they did not have to worry about recommending approval for solar PV systems because in a couple of years we will have all the fusion electricity we need.

I would had explosed and start to yell at them with some italian horrific words....
Ukraine war did not taught the lesson to everybody. Independence is the key, even on a small scale.
Everybody should go solar and have big batteries at home.... regardless what will happen, power will be there for you.

The best solutions are a mix of both grid and local via solar etc and besides the Ukraine war effect, they must also break the linkage between the cost of fuel oil / gas / electric so that would reduce the raging inflation at a stroke and the world needs to find a way that any country that deliberately targets power infrastructure such as a nuclear power plant, which puts innocent people at huge risk, are automatically dog piled and the authorities of that country are removed from power and tried as war criminals.

You mean as opposed to the Class-War criminals that are pulling their strings and calling it "just doing business"...?

Y'all are reacting as if the Ukraine war was some kind of crazy maniac doing something completely unexpected. No, the man is a fucking ghoul, perfectly in control of his faculties, and his regime have been doing exactly as they've been instructed to do by those who own his shriveled little black soul.

Namely, anything it takes to keep the current paradigm in control, even though the source of their control, oil, has literally been sucked dry decades ago. We have now resorted to breaking mother earth's bones to release locked natural gas (that is holding the crust up) and pumping poison by the MFT through the water table for the sole purpose of turning coal deposits into slurry underground to pump it out as if it were the same thing as oil.

The raging inflation is directly tied to the fact that the currencies of our global economy are no longer backed by precious metals or gems, but rather oil, and have been for over half a century.

Oil that no longer exists.

mnem
*toddles off to do Christmas things*

[Robert]

More expensive lights like you're talking aboot, I'm sure they can afford a proper Δ-peak charge circuit for NiMH. But everybody, even Wally World, sells a dozen different versions of these Chinesium walkway lights, etc that all use the very basic charge & Dawn/Dusk circuit found in these POS ornaments.

The lights I'm talking about are walkway lights costing 50p and have a button cell, could be NiCad, could be NiMH, or cost somewhere between £5 and £10, and have a unit with an AA cell, which is a 600mAh NiMH. They run a string of about 50 LEDs. They have a special chip and a buck convertor and no trace of a Δ-peak charger.

NiCad cells have some advantages, but their use is discouraged for obvious reasons.

Except they are not being discouraged. As I said, they have enjoyed quite a resurgence of late in just this niche market. Whether we like the idea or not, they are all over the place out in the wild, and are not going away any time soon.

And I'd bet you a buck-converter that "special chip" is a purpose-built BMS for a small solar cell and a small NiMH battery.

mnem
moo. or don't.

They may exist in the USA for these applictions but in most of the world Ni-Cd cells have been banned for all but safety critical applications like emergency lighting. Cadmium is nasty stuff and there is no justification for it's use in this sort of frivilous application. Especially as the consumers are likey to just put them in the trash.

[Zenith]

Except they are not being discouraged. As I said, they have enjoyed quite a resurgence of late in just this niche market. Whether we like the idea or not, they are all over the place out in the wild, and are not going away any time soon.

And I'd bet you a buck-converter that "special chip" is a purpose-built BMS for a small solar cell and a small NiMH battery.

In the UK you can still buy NiCd cells, but you won't find them in the shops, in the way that you can buy NiMH. Farnell etc stock them, but they are mainly packs for emergency lighting and tools. As far as I know they don't appear in rechargeable gizmos.

The solar light head that I have in front of me, uses a chip called a YX805A, which is like a Zetex transistor but with four pins. They cost pennies each. The the datasheet is on the web, but it's in Chinese and it is quite brief. You can find it and recommended circuits on the WWW easily enough.

Here's a Youtube video where someone plays around with one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7sWhxhnug4

As far as I can see when the light is bright enough for the solar cells to produce more than a couple of volts, the battery is charged through a diode. It isn't exactly a controlled charging method. When there's not enough light to do that, the chip operates a chopper which activates a boost converter - basically a single inductance. It's hard to say what the datasheet recommends as a battery, but I can't see why it wouldn't work with either NiMH or NiCd.

[25 CPS]

For what it's worth, the new manufacture battery packs I picked up for the HP calculators contained Nickel Cadmium AA cells. They're fine for that application and they'll be properly recycled when their useful life is over, and it's close to original since that's what Hewlett-Packard used in the 1970s.

That said, I'm not planning a return to the 1980s with Radio Shack or Canadian Tire shoebox style chargers that had the lid on top above a row of four bays that had movable contacts in order to accommodate everything from AAA to D sized cells, and a metric ton of batteries that all had varying degrees of memory effect and low running time. Back then, taking one of the chargers and a bunch of rechargeable NiCd batteries for flashlights off to scout camp to charge up in one of the cabins or during the mess hall during the day was actually considered environmentally friendly vs. running down regular batteries and throwing them out. Recycling them wasn't a thing then.

[Specmaster]

For what it's worth, the new manufacture battery packs I picked up for the HP calculators contained Nickel Cadmium AA cells. They're fine for that application and they'll be properly recycled when their useful life is over, and it's close to original since that's what Hewlett-Packard used in the 1970s.

That said, I'm not planning a return to the 1980s with Radio Shack or Canadian Tire shoebox style chargers that had the lid on top above a row of four bays that had movable contacts in order to accommodate everything from AAA to D sized cells, and a metric ton of batteries that all had varying degrees of memory effect and low running time. Back then, taking one of the chargers and a bunch of rechargeable NiCd batteries for flashlights off to scout camp to charge up in one of the cabins or during the mess hall during the day was actually considered environmentally friendly vs. running down regular batteries and throwing them out. Recycling them wasn't a thing then.
[/quote]
I brought 2 boxes of these 2 years ago which are ideal for the older type of calculators, I have so far fitted these with no problems to Texas Ti 58 and others in that series with the bubbles LED displays, Commodores of the 1970's both with the bubble LEDs and also VFD displays as in the Minuteman series. With the Ti's it is necessary to modify the battery housing as they were designed with swappable battery packs, but the batteries were not replaceable. I just removed the plastic retainers and battery terminals. fitted the new packs after making slits in the plastic wrapping to all allow the strengthening ribs in the holder to fit between the cells, and soldered wire to the battery terminals and the contacts on the PCB of the calculator, job done.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155053025137

Ni-Cad.jpg

[Specmaster]

A quick update on our recent emergency, the Doctor sent their paramedic to see MIL at home on Friday and said she might have had a stroke, on Saturday it was decided to take her to A&E and they did some tests thinking it was Vertigo and kept her in overnight. Sunday she was admitted to a ward and had a MRI scan, today the results were known, she has had a stroke. I doubt that she will be allowed back home for Christmas as she lives on her own and is unable to do anything for herself. Although SWMBO and SIL said that they would stay with her, but either way Christmas in our house is now postponed till further notice and on top of all that, I have an appointment with the doctor's nursing team to have dressings changed on my ankle, 3 times a week which now has been the case for 3 months and it shows no signs of healing properly, and they have tried almost everything apart from the kitchen sink to cure it, my ankle is not a pretty sight.

[Cubdriver]

A quick update on our recent emergency, the Doctor sent their paramedic to see MIL at home on Friday and said she might have had a stroke, on Saturday it was decided to take her to A&E and they did some tests thinking it was Vertigo and kept her in overnight. Sunday she was admitted to a ward and had a MRI scan, today the results were known, she has had a stroke. I doubt that she will be allowed back home for Christmas as she lives on her own and is unable to do anything for herself. Although SWMBO and SIL said that they would stay with her, but either way Christmas in our house is now postponed till further notice and on top of all that, I have an appointment with the doctor's nursing team to have dressings changed on my ankle, 3 times a week which now has been the case for 3 months and it shows no signs of healing properly, and they have tried almost everything apart from the kitchen sink to cure it, my ankle is not a pretty sight.

Ugh - when it rains, it pours. Crappy time for all this to happen (not that there's ever a good time for such things to happen, but during the Christmas season makes it worse given everything else that is typically going on at this time of year.) Prayers and good thoughts inbound to MIL, and I hope your ankle starts to get with the program, too - dressing changes do not sound pleasant, and three months is too long. Yike!

-Pat

[Specmaster]

From the you couldn't make it up dept.

Today just down the road from me I have witnessed masses of water running down the road in the gulleys, I first spotted this about 6 hours ago and it is still happening, so like a good citizen I'm trying to report it, after all, water is supposed to be important. I'm on the phone to the water company (yes its a private company) and I'm supposed to be on their emergency contact line for leaks in the public domain, through an automated system, which is playing short messages and of them gives you an estimated wait time which was approx an hour at the beginning and another tells me if you spot a leak in a public place call them immediately on their emergency line as water is very important, which is precisely what I was trying to do.

Anyway, I did get connected after 37 minutes, and it has been put down on a next day list for a visit to investigate it further. Just hope that it does not become a major issue with a full-blown burst and water geyser which would cut our water off.

article-2016056-0D0FC05D00000578-150_634x416.jpg

[Cubdriver]

Hurry up and wait!

-Pat

[Peter_O]

You can never have enought HP calculators.
viewtopic.php?p=1647#p1647

[Specmaster]

Yep, a few weeks ago I never had any, now I'm on my ninth, it seems every time I turn my back they multiply

[Specmaster]

Hurry up and wait!

-Pat

Well it seems I was correct, the following day I received a text message telling me that an engineer was on route to inspect the leak I reported and this morning when taking my youngest to work, they were getting ready to dig the road up. Hopefully I've saved someone from having a bad Christmas

[Specmaster]

Its like Tumbleweed City here lately, I just hope you all are having fun and its not another reason that is keeping you away

[Robert]

Latest aquisition arrived today. a Multimetter [sic}

Televes-multimetter.jpg

It's actually a TV test box including analog and digital receiver covering up to 2GHz and a spectrum analyser. Cost was £9.99. It has a tiny colour screen that can also display external composie video. I need to find a SCART lead and see if the SA display cna be put on a bigger monitor.
It does have an issue, the two 6V SLA batteries are dead and it won't run on the external DC input. It does run fine on 12V connected in place of the battery. no futher investigtion for now.
Spectrum analyser count currently at seven despite having sold 6 this year!
edit SA display

Televes-SA.jpg

[Zenith]

Its like Tumbleweed City here lately, I just hope you all are having fun and its not another reason that is keeping you away

There are loads of things to keep people distracted in the run up to Christmas.

My current project is a Marconi TF2600B, which came from a rally in the summer, and was mostly working - it under read increasingly as the frequency dropped below 100KHz, to basically nothing at 10Hz. The problem turned out to be an open circuit electrolytic in the signal path. Now it remains to put it back together and sort out the calibration, which seems a little off.

I don't mind writing it up and adding some photos, but I wonder if such a simple repair is of any interest to anyone, or much use to anyone who has one to fix.

I do have a few more challenging repairs in the pipeline.

[MED6753]

I don't mind writing it up and adding some photos, but I wonder if such a simple repair is of any interest to anyone, or much use to anyone who has one to fix.

I do have a few more challenging repairs in the pipeline.

Always interested in repairs, even if simple.

[Specmaster]

I don't mind writing it up and adding some photos, but I wonder if such a simple repair is of any interest to anyone, or much use to anyone who has one to fix.

I do have a few more challenging repairs in the pipeline.

Every repair is simple if you know what the problem is, the more we can build up a database of repairs, the easier it becomes for others who come along later and may have similar problems, saves them a lot of time and effort, so yes please, write it up, it can be brief or detailed, as long it contains the important bits of how you tracked down and the cure.

[25 CPS]

You can never have enought HP calculators.
viewtopic.php?p=1647#p1647

Agreed. I have 16 of them and have been on the fence about adding a 17th.

I still wonder about the Voyageur series though. No 13C is easily understood on the grounds of the superstitions about the number 13. I’ve never come across an explanation for why there’s no 14C though. The series jumped from 12C right to 15C.

[Zenith]

@MED6753 @ Specmaster,

Thank you for that. I shall write it up as a post. I haven't put it back together properly yet, but I believe the back of the problem has been broken, and there are the obvious distractions of the season. Give it a few days, but almost certainly before the New Year.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all.

[mnementh]

BRRRRUCE says "Merry Christmas, all you maniacs!!!"

mnem
"Brrruce-dolph the Red-Nosed Lawn-Shark... had a very shiny nose;
And if you ever saw it... you prolly wouldn't live to say so..."

[Specmaster]

BRRRRUCE says "Merry Christmas, all you maniacs!!!"

mnem
"Brrruce-dolph the Red-Nosed Lawn-Shark... had a very shiny nose;
And if you ever saw it... you prolly wouldn't live to say so..."

He actually looks a bit fatter than last year so I guess he probably had relapse and ate his new fishy friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWuPGKLJXe8

[Specmaster]

What's next in the run-up to Christmas for the Specmaster family, I wonder. Mother in Law in hospital with a stroke, oldest son and his girlfriend were coming to Christmas dinner, and because SWMBO would be visiting MIL, he was going to cook dinner (I can't cook), yeah I know I'm a heathen

Last night my middle son tested positive for Covid and is now confining himself to his bedroom for 14 days, so that means, SWMBO can no longer visit her Mum for fear of taking it into the ideal breeding ground, eldest can no longer come to dinner so I have to shoot off in a minute and try to find a smaller turkey and we'll definitely be having the proper family Christmas dinner sometime in 2023 I reckon.

Maybe we are taking the hit for the rest of the squad, so enjoy it, fellow freaks.

[mnementh]

BRRRRUCE says "Merry Christmas, all you maniacs!!!"

mnem
"Brrruce-dolph the Red-Nosed Lawn-Shark... had a very shiny nose;
And if you ever saw it... you prolly wouldn't live to say so..."

He actually looks a bit fatter than last year so I guess he probably had relapse and ate his new fishy friends

*Bruce points to the Fish are Friends Club charter*

"Doesn't say a thing in here aboot reindeers."

mnem
or... *gulp* fat dwagons.