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

[25 CPS]

I just updated the HP 35 thread I started in the fall because I found more interesting paperwork in the box. The original sales receipt turned out to be tucked into the back cover folder of the owner's manual along with two unused "Property Of" stickers, and I didn't notice it until just now because it was upside down and the back is plain unprinted paper, but the receipt for the calculator going through Hewlett Packard's buggy ROM replacement program. I can't believe how fully documented this calculator is.

[25 CPS]

Tonight's Kijiji pickup on the way home from visiting relatives was a pair of decade boxes:





I've never had an inductance decade before and I really wouldn't consider the Stark capacitor substitution box which had many all over the map values to be viable, so these two decade boxes represent a net-new capability for my workbench.



The capacitance decade appears to have been made in England by a company that's since exited that line of business.



Lionmount & Company Ltd. is not an outfit I've ever heard of but that is definitely a made in Canada product with those Robertson screws.

I brought along the Keysight U1733C meter to the meet and these boxes checked out beautifully.

And just for fun, I took a picture of the information side of the cardboard part of the package for that banana plug wall plate:





Just as I suspected, General Electric had zero involvement with that product other than selling their name to the company that's actually behind it. This would be Jasco Products Company LLC in this case, whoever they are, and whoever they are felt it was necessary to explain in large type right at the top of the package that the "Dual Speaker Wall Plate - For 2 Speakers." Who would have ever made the wild guess that a dual speaker wall plate is for two speakers? It would have been more useful if they said it doesn't work with dual banana connectors so you know right off the top that you're screwed if that's what you're planning on terminating the ends of your speaker wires with.

[tggzzz]

One of the JJ Lloyd Decade Resistor boxes I had contained perfectly respectable matching resistors. The other didn't; it had several different types. Not sure what to make of that.

Personally I prefer the Muirhead and Cropico boxes. If nothing else, the tactile feel of the carbon/graphite switches is almost pornographic. (Yes, I'm old and sad)

The capacitor and inductor boxes will probably fetch a surprisingly high price price on fleabay. Hells bells, even the modern Time resistance boxes (ugh) fetch silly prices.

[Specmaster]

We should be joining up with an old friend URI from the EEVblog soon, he told me last night that he was missing his old chums on EEVblog since he returned from taking time off to finish his house, he noticed that we were no longer there. He has now registered here and is just waiting for bitseeker to do his bit, and then he will be joining in on the banter which he is missing and was one of the reason for him joining up over on the old place in the first place.

[mnementh]

I just packed it in for the evening in sheer frustration... You have to be kidding me.

Whoever made this decided to break from the 3/4 inch spacing standard that has been used practically forever which means anything with a dual banana connector doesn't fit which rules out plugging in dual banana to alligator clip test leads or speaker wires terminated in a dual banana connector.

That is supremely annoying. I'm going to have to find a wall plate with correct spacing or use panel mount connectors and a piece of sheet metal or plastic to make a replacement front for that box.

Since Mnem seems to be asleep at the wheel here, I'm going to say it: That is a prime example for "things to be fixed with 3d printing"!

Not asleep... working on this:



Yes, it is a 3DP project.

Frustion360 Interactive Project Viewer here: https://a360.co/3ZJJqXl

mnem
I kicked Frustion360 in the balls last night!

[tggzzz]

Just finished watching one of those programmes on "repeat TV channels" we have here: "Secrets of the London Underground".

I find it more engaging than most such programmes. Partly that is because the presenters appear to have more familiarity with the topics than most modern "seagull talent" presenters; one works for the London Transport museum. Partly it is because the subject matter can be interesting.

Anyway, this particular episode had a segment about delivering power to the tube tracks. They showed a working mercury arc rectifier, something I haven't seen since university, where there was one at the bottom of a stairwell in the students' union (HSE? Wozzat?).

In order to demonstrate the difference between A.C. and the output of the rectifiers, they showed a pristine 2465B occupying the full screen, and even being (shock horror) operated. Took me back 50 years to my youth and the quality of demos they had back then.

Later they had a segment about paying for tickets. It seems the contactless payments I make several times a day in shops was pioneered in the London Transport Oyster card. Never knew that.

All in all a pleasant surprise after going to a new takeaway 100yards from me, only to find they didn't have a menu and couldn't take cards. WTF? ( "You can order online" ain't gonna work for me.

[Specmaster]

Yes, I love those documentaries as well, there are a whole series of them, including one on how they try and keep all the traffic in London moving, not that it seems to work all that well, but clearly better than it would if they didn't monitor it. Another on air traffic control systems at Heathrow Airport.

[tggzzz]

My brother was involved in setting up LATCC at West Draton in the early 70s.

Got me a few metres of single core wire in 100+ wire cables. We are both still using that as hookup wire on projects I reciprocated decades later, by retrieving some POTS cable in the road outside our parents: enamelled, wax paper insulated twisted pairs/quads, lead sheathed.

He also managed to get me into the very top of the old Heathrow control tower, one night. Fun. They said they didn't open the hatch in the roof while the ASMI radar antenna was spinning (1rps, IIRC[1]), since you would be sucked upwards.


On the way up to the top I was somewhat shocked by the racks of equipment: lots of trailing and dangling cables everywhere!

[1] on checking 60rpm yay, 5.5m wide

[TonyAlbus]

Good tools is half the work we say..
Here i have a electric screwdriver with adjustable torque and many many screw bits. even the weird ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8-CxZ-1qh4

front.j.jpg

[mnementh]

WOWStick.JPG

https://www.amazon.com/WOWSTICK-Screwdr ... 09GJLDBK4/

Heh... I just ordered up this little Chinesium beauty cuz... 11 dollah. Lorts of discounts!

These are all cheap knockoffs of the MiniWare smart driver, which uses an accelerometer to control the driver action with just a twist of the wrist; this is a much more natural control interface. But those cost $100-ish, so unless you make your living tearing laptops apart, not really a cost-effective choice.

I will admit, I'd probably have been all up in one of them back when I nuked VCRSs & CD player for a living, tho... and I'm sure the body being carved out of 304 stainless like my favorite EDC flashlights must make the thing a joy in the hand...

https://www.amazon.com/MINIWARE-Screwdr ... B09MVM9PTW


mnem
we'll see what shows up...

[AVGresponding]

ffs what's wrong with using a normal screwdriver, you limp-wristed wallys

[tggzzz]

ffs what's wrong with using a normal screwdriver, you limp-wristed wallys

Do it too many times and you end up with limp wrists.

Also can be painful if you have to twist too hard with a popped biceps

[Zenith]

If you have a lot of screws to remove or replace, an electric screwdriver is much faster. It's also convenient to fish out a bit, say Torx, rather than find a Torx driver, if you have one. But normal screwdrivers definitely have their place.

[URI]

We should be joining up with an old friend URI from the EEVblog soon, he told me last night that he was missing his old chums on EEVblog since he returned from taking time off to finish his house, he noticed that we were no longer there. He has now registered here and is just waiting for bitseeker to do his bit, and then he will be joining in on the banter which he is missing and was one of the reason for him joining up over on the old place in the first place.

Thanks spec!
I missed you ol' bunch indeed: Beeing catching up on eevblogs TEA-thread I stumbled over all the trouble with the moderation and deleting of posts and the breakup of the TEA-group at eevblog like in time shift. That was really painful for me.
So now I'm glad my felt home for curing my TEAddiction is still there -moved though- but still alive and kicking.

[tggzzz]

I missed you ol' bunch indeed: Beeing catching up on eevblogs TEA-thread I stumbled over all the trouble with the moderation and deleting of posts and the breakup of the TEA-group at eevblog like in time shift. That was really painful for me.
So now I'm glad my felt home for curing my TEAddiction is still there -moved though- but still alive and kicking.

Schisms happen.
Relationships change.
No point in being too upset about it.
It isn't exclusive-or.
Grateful for the effort put into re-creating the concept; kudos. (For the record, my contribution: zero)

... and welcome

[mnementh]

ffs what's wrong with using a normal screwdriver, you limp-wristed wallys

Nuthin'... when you have 6 or so tiny little screws to contend with... quite a different story when there's 16 of them holding the bottom on a laptop, and another 16 holding the mainboard and fiddly bits, and oh, BTW, you have a stack of 16 laptops that you need to get to the other side of the mainboard to replace say, a keyboard or to service the CPU cooler bits.

We call it "force multiplication"... this applies to minutes saved as well as assache.

mnem
"Work smarter, not harder." ~grand-dad

[URI]

Hi fellow addicts!

Like I wrote on 05-10-2021 over in the eevblog-TEA-thread my wife and I bought a house in 2021. We moved from the inner city to a rural village with only little less than 1000 inhabitants and lots of Gegend* around it. (*- fields and grassland, sheep, cows, horses..)

20220927_village.jpg

Believe it or not, this pic isn't faked: the rainbow begins right at our new place.

20220927_village_rainbow.jpg

Sunrise from our first floor (never had that view of sight at our old place being in the city on the ground floor):

20221004_sunrise.jpg

Before moving in we wanted the electrical installation to be completely rebuilt.
So we removed all wallpaper, interior insulation, carpets, baseboards to the bare walls and floors.
We had to move loads like this more than once:

20220202_construction_waste.jpg

20220126_disposal.jpg

We prepared the complete new built-up of the electricity system by ripping out the old fuse box (built into a wall) and bricked up the hole -the location of the new on-wall fuse box:

20210820_fusebox.jpg

20220219_old_fusebox_demo.jpg

20220220_old_fusebox_opening_walled.jpg

The electrician left us with this in the end:

20220305_new_fusebox.jpg

Since we're now living in a rural area we are silently getting visits of otherwise unseen wild animals. This could be a marten, but I'm not sure, I'm a technician. What comes to mind with martens is you don't want them ranting under your cars engine bonnet..

20220416_visitors.jpg

..to be continued..

[URI]

follow-up:

We also changed some minor things of the houses construction.
I ripped out a steel door frame..

20220206_doorframe_demo.jpg

20220226_doorframe_out.jpg

..and bricked it up.

20220320_dooropening_walled.jpg

We closed an opening of former roof window..

20220124_former_roof_window_opening.jpg

20220305_former_roof_window_opening_closed.jpg

..and ripped out all wall and ceiling panelling in the first floor rooms.

As a surprise, the ceiling of the biggest room on the first floor was constructed a bit different than all other rooms on this floor. The previous owner -who built this house from scratch- didn't use heat-insulation lamitated sheetrock here (what would have resulted in a wind-proof ceiling like in the other rooms) but scrap styrofoam pieces as insulation and covered that with not wind-proof profiled timber. *facepalm*

20220305_demo_ceiling_office.jpg

The planks you see on the upper left side of the picture (where we already pulled out the styrofoam waste) is the floor of the attic.

As a result we unexpectedly had to rebuild this ceiling -in a tight time schedule, because we had already a due date for the painter to start his work.. so I insulated and redid 18m² ceiling there.

20220323_heat_isolation_office.jpg

20220324_damp-proof_mambrane_office.jpg

20220328_closing_ceiling_office.jpg

All above on weekends and Friday evenings together with my wife. I lost several kilograms in that period of time and I'm not overweight.

The painter did the final working steps and filled the sheetrock ceiling.

20220405_ceiling_office_closed.jpg

..to be continued..

[Specmaster]

We should be joining up with an old friend URI from the EEVblog soon, he told me last night that he was missing his old chums on EEVblog since he returned from taking time off to finish his house, he noticed that we were no longer there. He has now registered here and is just waiting for bitseeker to do his bit, and then he will be joining in on the banter which he is missing and was one of the reason for him joining up over on the old place in the first place.

Thanks spec!
I missed you ol' bunch indeed: Beeing catching up on eevblogs TEA-thread I stumbled over all the trouble with the moderation and deleting of posts and the breakup of the TEA-group at eevblog like in time shift. That was really painful for me.
So now I'm glad my felt home for curing my TEAddiction is still there -moved though- but still alive and kicking.

Welcome aboard URI, we missed you as well, and as you see, as far as the old TEA theme, nothing has changed, its content is just as wild as ever, bouncing all over the place as regards to topics and anything that is on topic and worthy of a post has it dedicated places as well so it makes for easy navigation through the many posts. I'm sure that you will soon get used to the way we do things here in the relaxed fashion as we used to before until people came on board who liked things to be all regimental.

[Specmaster]

ffs what's wrong with using a normal screwdriver, you limp-wristed wallys

Nuthin'... when you have 6 or so tiny little screws to contend with... quite a different story when there's 16 of them holding the bottom on a laptop, and another 16 holding the mainboard and fiddly bits, and oh, BTW, you have a stack of 16 laptops that you need to get to the other side of the mainboard to replace say, a keyboard or to service the CPU cooler bits.

We call it "force multiplication"... this applies to minutes saved as well as assache.

mnem
"Work smarter, not harder." ~grand-dad

What, most laptops that I have come across you can replace from the top with only a couple of screws, no need for a small power driver.

[URI]

still follow-up:

In the end this room -our new office- looked like this after our move:

20220901_office.jpg

You see my bench there but this will not be the place where I will build it permanently, I'll move it into a room in the (dry & clean) basement.

We were happy to find a group of craftsmen knowing each other well (electrician, glazier, painter and decorator) and they teamed so well we mostly didn't have to organize work or target dates between them.
Front door, basement door, patio door and nearly all windows were replaced with modern ones that don't accidentally vent any more.
All rooms now have Ethernet and satellite outlets and the mount of the TV-satellite antenna will be the mount for my GPS-antenna for my GPSDOs, too.

In August 2022 we moved house on two days.
Deconstruction of my bench at our flat:

20220801_deconstructing_bench.jpg

The man of the moving company that inspected our flat for making us an offer stated that we were a household with nearly twice the volume to transport than most other households in his experience. Guess why..
The following photo is symptomatic.

20220801_moving boxes.jpg

We moved in without the kitchen being built up. Electric installations were of course also remade here:

20220308_kitchen_raw.jpg

All kitchen companies we consulted would do the planning for us but weren't able to plan and offer us what we wanted -at least not at a reasonable price. So we ended up buying an Ikea kitchen and used it as a kit bashing base. 8)

20220724_ikea-boxes.jpg

I also built the base of the lower cabinets from scratch myself to get us a worktop height 105cm above the floor, not the standard 90 to 92 cm.

20220724_special_base-construction.jpg

A peek into construction work of our kitchen (it's almost finished now, but we lived with the kitchen as a construction site for several months).

20220901_ikea-kitbash.jpg

We didn't have a balcony with our old flat, just the flat. After the exhausting time of overhauling the new old house to get everything ready in time before moving in we enjoy our garden very much. It requires work, too -but it's work worth to do for ourselves.

20220702_gardenview.jpg

Contrast: This is behind us..

20220122_office_demo.jpg

We weren't/aren't in a hurry after moving in, since we had and have to recover from all that extra work. So this is our living room (the half with our dining table) and my home office desk..

20220901_after_moving_in.jpg

You see, we still have piles of moving boxes in two rooms and my TEA bench is not set up again. In fact my TE is still completely stored in the basement while my desk and bench are in our office room on the first floor temporarily.
We have ordered an individually built bookcase from a local carpenter and it will be delivered in May -I hope. That will give the space to setup my bench again. Shifting boxes and spaces..
Despite that I'll have to pull out parts of my soldering equipment because I need it to build kits for a little bit of home automation in the near future.

So I'm back -almost.

In fact I just bought my second HP 5370B time interval counter because it has a serial# starting with 2732 instead of 2438.
I correct: I'm back to TEA obviously.

Still much to do in the new "old" house, so expect me to be lurking most of the time the next months still.
Those who are also reading eevblogs TEA-thread will spot that I reused my "I'm back"-posting from there. But there it was only text to get not too OT.

EOM

[Cubdriver]

The joy of renovation - you never know WHAT you’re going to find when you take down a wall or ceiling covering! Sounds like it was quite an adventure and effort, but I’m sure it’ll be well worth it. Looks like a very nice home, and a beautiful area - congrats on the move, and welcome back!

-Pat

[URI]

Yes, the joy of renovation.
I followed your rebuilding/extending of your house back then. After all is done you really need photos to remember all the hassle and work you went thru. Our brain wipes out negative things astonishingly fast.
But it could have been worse, if the previous owner had built all the ceilings so badly.. In that case the glass really was half full.

In my case: Since we moved in and living here has become normal the exhaustion and extra working pressure have disappeared from my memory as something I can physically feel. The photos I posted today brought back some memories I didn't actively remembered until then.

My wife and I enjoy living here now everyday. We now have a ~25km trip to work (one way) but when we come here after work we are almost immediately relaxed. That is in clear contrast to our flat in the city where we had all sorts of disturbances from traffic, neighbours next wall/above us.. Not to mention the lack of parking space and the time lost searching for a space to park the car.
We now enjoy the fresh air, walks through the fields, birds singing in the morning and so on.

I'm looking forward to getting into my TE and feeding my addiction again.

[URI]

I bought an hp 5370B time interval counter on March, 10th off of ebay.


I placed a reasonable low offer briefly before ending. I didn't really expect my offer being accepted but I couldn't let the instrument go without doing anything.
To my surprise the seller accepted shortly after my offer. It's only my second 5370B, that's not concernig, isn't it?

Shipping was delayed 'til March 14th, already triggering my impatience.

20230319_screenshot2.png

It's now sitting near Erlanger (the location of fear reagarding repackaging) and was transported roughly 2200km in that 3.5 days.

20230319_UPS_screenshot.png

Why does that feel so slow..?

[mnementh]

ffs what's wrong with using a normal screwdriver, you limp-wristed wallys

Nuthin'... when you have 6 or so tiny little screws to contend with... quite a different story when there's 16 of them holding the bottom on a laptop, and another 16 holding the mainboard and fiddly bits, and oh, BTW, you have a stack of 16 laptops that you need to get to the other side of the mainboard to replace say, a keyboard or to service the CPU cooler bits.

We call it "force multiplication"... this applies to minutes saved as well as assache.

mnem
"Work smarter, not harder." ~grand-dad

What, most laptops that I have come across you can replace from the top with only a couple of screws, no need for a small power driver.

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Obviously, you haven't had to work on anything thin & modern; my description was, if anything, considerably less assache than most portable computing devices made in the last decade or so.

Whether you would choose such a thing or not is immaterial when it's your job; you work on what the client has, not what you wish they had.

Cheers,

mnem
*zoom-zoom*