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

[AVGresponding]

No, I'm not, but I did check it twice...

[Zenith]

what? you are gonna' name names?

for a list?

Only so many can become The Few. And you'd better be prepared to roll your trouser leg up and go through a silly initiation ceremony. It does involve an oath of omerta, which you'd best take seriously because we do. Afterwards we'll recognise each other with strange handshakes. Fortunately tattoos are neither necessary nor considered desirable.

Sorry. I couldn't resist it.

[nixiefreqq]

have not been this excited about the possibility of admission into a fraternal organization since my rejection by the cadets of temperance.

[tggzzz]

have not been this excited about the possibility of admission into a fraternal organization since my rejection by the cadets of temperance.

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.
Groucho Marx

[Zenith]

have not been this excited about the possibility of admission into a fraternal organization since my rejection by the cadets of temperance.

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.
Groucho Marx

Groucho Marx was a great man.

"These are my principles, and if you don't like them, well I've got others".

His secretary came to him and asked for time off because she was pregnant. He said she had seven kids already and asked why she was having another. She said, "Mr Marx, I love my husband".
He retorted, "I love my cigar but I sometimes take it out".

[mnementh]

what? you are gonna' name names?

for a list?

Only so many can become The Few. And you'd better be prepared to roll your trouser leg up and go through a silly initiation ceremony. It does involve an oath of omerta, which you'd best take seriously because we do. Afterwards we'll recognise each other with strange handshakes. Fortunately tattoos are neither necessary nor considered desirable.

Sorry. I couldn't resist it.

tatts or tants? Tants have been responsible for some of my best scores... also, of course, responsible for some of my worst test-bench headaches...

mnem

[mnementh]

Hippo Bathday @bd139!

mnem
From one SOB to another...

[bd139]

Thank you. As I said on Discord, another year closer to death.

Went spending today and got myself some stuff and had dinner out somewhere nice with the eldest.

[MED6753]

And here we go again. A foot of snow predicted for Tuesday. We've had weeks of temperatures well above normal which melted the snow we had back in early January. It was almost Spring like last week now back to Winter. Blondie has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday which will probably be rescheduled.

[mnementh]

Ditto here, including Dr appts rescheduled.

mnem
and I was thinking aboot putting the snowblower away for the season...

[mnementh]

Greetings from the frozen tundra of New England!

This was from the bedroom window when I got up to go wee at 7AM; it's still snowing that hard and prognosticators say will continue another 4-5 hours or more...

Obviously a textbook snow day.

mnem

[mnementh]

Perfect breakfast for such a day: 170 grams/170mm waffle, double eggs for crispy edges, and 4 different kinds of *Bonne Maman* preserves.

mnem
I am not going to calculate the calories until after its all gone.

[MED6753]

As of 10 AM local time. Still snowing heavily. Will taper off this afternoon.

[mnementh]

Just now from the front door. This time yesterday it was high 40s, the grass was starting to green, and people not me were walking around outside in shirtsleeves.

mnem
Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes...

[Cubdriver]

Looks like about 10-12" here, and will be heavy as it's only a few tenths of a degree below freezing.






-Pat

[mansaxel]

We got about 60-70mm over the course of the day yesterday. As I left work at about 17:00, the temperature was hovering around 0°C but it's plummeted to -5° or thereabouts, so I went out about at midnight and shoveled away the mounds left by the snow plough By then it still was possible to shovel; I was afraid that it would freeze and become a block of icy snow, but I managed to avoid that.

[mnementh]

I've recently made a new acquisition; hopefully it arrives intact and as described.

mnem
for those in the States, details are in the eBay tat thread.

[Robert]

Was at Tesco this afternoon and picked up a book at the community book exchange. It looked interesting and being free I didn't examine it's teeth
Title is "Programming Languages History and Fundamentals". It's older than I thought, 1969 and does not include C but has several languages you have never heard of
Still has the price sticker inside the dust jacket - £25 that was a lot of money in the seventies when it was bought. A bit of research shows it to be a classic. There are PDF's out there but it seems the print version still has more value than the sticker price.

[tggzzz]

You mean this book:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program ... ndamentals
Looks like you picked up something worthwhile

There are several ways of calculating inflation, of course.
https://www.measuringworth.com/datasets ... esult2.php

The RPI since '69 has been a factor of 20.
The salary growth since '69 has been a factor of 35.
Hence it only costs 58% as much.

[Robert]

I was looking at a part on RS today (work so won't go into details) The website did not have much information and the drawing was of a completly different type of part. The datasheet was for the range and did not cover the exact part number. So I started a support "chat" Got a fairly prompt reply seemed like a person. Answer "there are no datasheets, go ask the manufacturer"! I'd already looked on their website and again it didn't list thr exact part number (last digit of which likly specified the critical parameter I needed to know. I asked why I was paying a distributor a premium and they didn't want to get the datasheets. Was told it would take them two weeks to get the data...
This level of service is just unacceptable.
Sorry had to rant at someone....

[tggzzz]

I was looking at a part on RS today (work so won't go into details) The website did not have much information and the drawing was of a completly different type of part. The datasheet was for the range and did not cover the exact part number. So I started a support "chat" Got a fairly prompt reply seemed like a person. Answer "there are no datasheets, go ask the manufacturer"! I'd already looked on their website and again it didn't list thr exact part number (last digit of which likly specified the critical parameter I needed to know. I asked why I was paying a distributor a premium and they didn't want to get the datasheets. Was told it would take them two weeks to get the data...
This level of service is just unacceptable.
Sorry had to rant at someone....

And afterwards you'll find it isn't in stock.

What is the benefit of aRSe not having an "in stock" filter? Digikey manages to have one.

[Zenith]

I've never been a fan of RS. Sometimes I've had to use them because they were the only practical source of a part.

I usually deal with CPC. They have a limited range but lowish prices. Sometimes I've dealt with Farnell, which is the same company. They have a wider range but are usually dearer.

I've had my share of problems with CPC, which were mainly low stocks and delays on what I would have thought were standard parts. That may have been largely down to supply chain problems caused by Covid. Occasionally they've sent the wrong parts or the wrong numbers of parts. It's always wise to check and count the order. An email has been enough to set it right. Sometimes they've sent a small item in a huge box. Sometimes the order has come as a lot of separate packages for no apparent reason. I recall bd139 has had a few problems with them. Their website seems OK and you can filter for parts in stock etc. I'd rate them as OK but not great.

I must try Mouser or Digikey.

[tggzzz]

I used to prefer Farnell to RS.
Farnell is now Avnet with a website that is much less functional, similar to aRSe.

Digikey's website is superb way of searching gradually refining a search for a component, seeing what the market has to offer[1]. Plus they have many components! Mouser is much the same.

[1] E.g. I recently wanted an HV electrolytic for a capacitor multiplier, so it was useful to be able to see the voltage-capacitance-price envelope.

[mansaxel]

There was something that RS were the best source for recently, for me. Yes, return springs for Lindström blue handle needle-nose and fine duckbill pliers, bought used without springs. And RS had stock, were cheap and so on. I bought some other sundries, like a Hammond aluminium cast box, bootlace ferrules and some crimp ring terminals. The order came in two shipments, reasonably fast.

But other than that, no, the only reasonable high profile supplier, for me, is Mouser. Or perhaps TME, if you're in the EU. I've used Eibabo in Germany for some sparky stuff, too.

[Cerebus]

I was looking at a part on RS today (work so won't go into details) The website did not have much information and the drawing was of a completly different type of part. The datasheet was for the range and did not cover the exact part number. So I started a support "chat" Got a fairly prompt reply seemed like a person. Answer "there are no datasheets, go ask the manufacturer"! I'd already looked on their website and again it didn't list thr exact part number (last digit of which likly specified the critical parameter I needed to know. I asked why I was paying a distributor a premium and they didn't want to get the datasheets. Was told it would take them two weeks to get the data...
This level of service is just unacceptable.
Sorry had to rant at someone....

RS have become a joke of late. I bought parts from RS when I was prototyping my GPSDO design. I'm at the stage where I'm going to spin up a proper board and 'productize' it (as much as one can 'productize' a hobby project). So I went back to RS to get the production parts. Couldn't find them, despite having the RS part numbers. Looking for alternatives I went delving and found that the part in question was still stocked, still had the same part number, just that RS are now incapable of finding it from their own part number. Finding out other parts from the same original order are also no longer apparently stocked by RS I gave up the fight and started rebuilding the BOM with Mouser part numbers. Life's too short to have to work my way around that level of incompetence.