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

[mnementh]

Fluorescent tubes shift in color as well. Warm white ones tend to shift brown, while cold white ones tend to shift blue/grey. None of them have nearly as much phosphor coating as they used to; I've seen 20-year-old T12 tubes that produced better, warmer light than the new ones we replaced along with the ballasts. Electronic ballasts also seem to beat the fuck out of the filaments as well; tube-ends start developing those black spots in a matter of months vs years back in the day.

I have no doubt there was similar design in play to the deliberate life-expectancy limitation we're all familiar with re: incandescent bulbs.

Another point: I personally believe that a large percentage of the energy savings attributed to CFL and later LED illumination are actually due to the fact that large-scale deployments (the kind most often used as data for these statistics) most often also included automation in the form of IR/Motion sensor and centralized "Smart-Building" type computerized lighting controls. Just plain turning the damned things OFF is still more conservative than all the "special bulbs" hooey we've had shoved down our throats over the last couple decades.

The main point being that considering the much larger environmental damage done in the manufacture and toxic waste associated with disposal of all these new lighting technologies, I am not convinced the switch from incandescent and lo-tech fluorescent bulbs is hugely better for the environment overall than just better lighting controls.

mnem

[Cerebus]

...while serving more customers less KWH each from the same out-dated infrastructure.

Why would anybody serve somebody else in Kelvin Watt Henries?

Thata makea no sense. What beastly thing would have dimensions of K m^4 kg^2 s^-5 A^-2 ?

[mnementh]

Ooookaaayyyy... guess I should've known better in here than to use the non-SI measure that the power company puts on my bill.

mnem
For those playing along at home, a KiloWattHour is approximately 3.6 megajoules.

[BU508A]

For those playing along at home, a KiloWattHour is approximately 3.6 megajoules.

It is EXACTLY 3.6MJ.

1J = 1Ws
1Wh = 3600Ws
1kWh = 3600000Ws = 3.6MJ

You're welcome.

[25 CPS]

I never liked incandescent replacement CFLs or the way they were foisted.

Siemens and Philips had sold those things for years, but they were never popular. They were more efficient, but more expensive. They didn't have a long life in lumieres they were not designed for. They had a warm up time which made them dangerous for stairs and generally irritating. People with epilepsy claimed to have it triggered by them. A lot of people didn't like the quality of the light. Nasty altogether.

They were pushed because of their planet saving credentials. Large stores had their arms twisted not to stock incandescents. CFLs were heavily subsidised for a period as a sweetener. At one time you could buy them in the supermarkets for £0.09 (nine pence) each. There was a loophole where "Rough Use" incandescents were still able to be sold for inspection lights and so on, and they appeared in the pound stores. These had always existed. The filaments weren't run as hot and had extra supports. I stocked up while the going was good, because there are uses for domestic incandescents in lamp limiters or as heaters.

Things changed a lot with practical and affordable LED domestic lights. This is a genuine advance in technology and I have no objections to using them at all.

The sunburn in the basement incident took place in February, 2014 which is why I was so puzzled at first how it happened given it was the middle of winter and I was indoors, and below ground level at that until I started making a mental list of every possible kind of UV source I could think of and realized the compact fluorescent bulbs including the one right by where I was working were the only possibility. That's what prompted me to take a look at them closely and discovered the defects in the phosphor coating. Back in February, 2014, LED bulbs for domestic lighting existed but they were phenomenally expensive and the idea of relamping the house with them was off the table.

The ban on incandescent bulbs wasn't in full effect here yet either. Only 75 W and higher domestic bulbs had been banned but it was recent enough that supplies hadn't run out and the lower wattage ones weren't yet restricted. Of course, the loopholes for rough service and specialty lamps exist. Anyways, that evening of the day I figured out what happened, I stopped at Canadian Tire on the way to a dinner meeting and stocked up on enough incandescent light blubs and changed them all out when I got home. That's how I ended up with a near 10 year supply of CFLs for the outside lights.

With respect to energy consumption and environmental concerns, it's just me now and I don't use much light. In the shoulder seasons and winter months, the heat generated isn't going to waste and I don't need to turn the lights on much in summer with the long daylight hours. Electricity in Ontario is mostly carbon free from hydro electric and nuclear, with a lot of wind and solar the last provincial government vastly overpaid for so the environmental impact on the additional power consumption isn't that bad plus the energy consumed and heat dissipated by something that's OFF is zero. So the plan now is to run out the stock of incandescents and then decide what the replacements for those will be based on what's available when the time comes.

[25 CPS]

I just dug out my 5216A Manual. Attached here are pics of the power supply schematic and the board layout to start with. Let me know what you need specifically, and I'll try to get good pics for you.





-Pat

Thanks for the diagram and layout photos. The ones in the Keysight manual scans are hard to read (diagram) or completely blown out (all the photos); the only thing that survived their scanning was the text itself. That gives me something to get started with this weekend.

your picture looks like the beverly blvd stop looking toward the beverly hills middle school?

graduated from upper darby high just up the road and then worked at a dept store on 69th street during my college years.

those two pictures i posted were found on the web. one is near 69th st and the other is up near the media-sharon hill split (you can see the funeral home in the background). when you rode those old hunks of iron every day you were not a rail fan......we were commuter/victims and developed a deep disdain for anything related to septa.

in fact, i got married once at the magistrates office at barclay square almost right across from where your picture may have been taken. oh man, have not thought about that in decades.......am heading for the bourbon cabinet......need some sweet relief from that memory.


edit forgot to say.......CFL bulbs suck shit thru a dirty sock.

I think it was Beverly Hills. We took the streetcar to the end of the line and walked to a diner that was a couple of blocks away for breakfast while I was visiting. I for sure understand why your memories of those old cars aren't fond. I've never encountered them outside of a museum setting that one time and I got to run it which was a blast so a totally different experience for me vs. having to endure riding them in a crappy daily public transportation setting under a crappy agency. Considering what happened to me in a massive subway delay while I was on my way to the dentist here, there are definitely good reasons why people say TTC stands for Take The Car.

[Cerebus]

Ooookaaayyyy... guess I should've known better in here than to use the non-SI measure that the power company puts on my bill.

mnem
For those playing along at home, a KiloWattHour is approximately 3.6 megajoules.

It's your capitalisation that's the problem, not the unit: kWh, simples. All the units with capital letters are named after people, all the lower case are either fundamental units or multipliers. k - kilo, K - Kelvin, s- second, S - Siemens, h - hour (unofficial, but widely used), H - Henry, and so on

[vk6zgo]

Ooookaaayyyy... guess I should've known better in here than to use the non-SI measure that the power company puts on my bill.

mnem
For those playing along at home, a KiloWattHour is approximately 3.6 megajoules.

It's your capitalisation that's the problem, not the unit: kWh, simples. All the units with capital letters are named after people, all the lower case are either fundamental units or multipliers. k - kilo, K - Kelvin, s- second, S - Siemens, h - hour (unofficial, but widely used), H - Henry, and so on

MegaHertz?

[mnementh]

And yet, when you Gurrgle KWH, the first hit is KiloWatt-Hour.

So if you really didn't know what I was talking aboot, that would've pointed you in the right direction.

But then, all y'all's wouldn't have had the diversion of pulling on the dwagon's tail, and we can't let such a opportunity go to waste.

mnem
and I'm totes down widdit..

[mnementh]

For those playing along at home, a KiloWattHour is approximately 3.6 megajoules.

It is EXACTLY 3.6MJ.

1J = 1Ws
1Wh = 3600Ws
1kWh = 3600000Ws = 3.6MJ

You're welcome.

*Lobs 3.6 million angry pixies, each wearing one soggy ol' boot, directly at Mounty's hobbit-hole...*

mnem
here, you count the little fuckers! Don't miss a single one!

[mnementh]

Looks like TEA has finally made it... we're being probed by the big boys. Everybody gird your loins.

mnem

[nixiefreqq]

[/quote]


That looks like the area around 69th Street. Here's a picture I took last November nearby when I was visiting a friend of mine who lives in Upper Darby. Unfortunately the ones in your pictures are now relegated to museums. The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum outside of Pittsburgh has a good collection of Red Arrow cars and they can run them since their line is the same Pennsylvania broad gauge as used in Philadelphia so there's no need to do any work regauging the trucks before they can be used. Baltimore's track gauge is even wider so that Philadelphia car had to be modified before it could be used there. They have cars 14 and 24 from the same order as 12 in your picture and I got to enjoy running 14 when I visited there back in 2003 or 2004.

[/quote]


hey cps 25

thanks! did not know about the PA trolley museum in pittsburgh.

for sure my formerly skinny ass did ride on car 14 and 24 a lot back before 1980. maybe living here in south central PA for 43 years has taught me forgiveness........because seeing the pictures on the museum website has me feeling a little nostalgic for those old cars.

if a reason to visit pittsburgh should come up, the museum will be on my stop list for sure. heck.....always wanted to go see an NHL game in west pennsylvania too......because there is rumored to be a girl on their team. (cindy crosby or something like that?)

[AVGresponding]

Looks like TEA has finally made it... we're being probed by the big boys. Everybody gird your loins.

mnem

As long as the important bits are hidden behind membership, it's fine.

[mnementh]

I was a regular rider on the 42/38 Mt Lebanon-Dormont and the Castle-Shannon Library runs circa 1980.

I probably rode all these cars during my youth; 1613 & 1712 are very familiar. Loved the clickety-clack and the zzzzzzzorrrrch! and the smell of old handhold-polished wood, rusty metal and ozone. That tunnel is through Mount Washington, IIRC, and originally made just for the trolley line... it was scary how close the walls were when you zipped through.

mnem
And then there's the Duquesne Incline... http://www.duquesneincline.org/

[mnementh]

Looks like TEA has finally made it... we're being probed by the big boys. Everybody gird your loins.
mnem

As long as the important bits are hidden behind membership, it's fine.

No, I was being silly; suggesting we should be on best behavior and not running around nekkid, you wild man...

mnem
fine, fine... I'll go put on pants...

[25 CPS]

I was a regular rider on the 42/38 Mt Lebanon-Dormont and the Castle-Shannon Library runs CA 1980.

I probably rode all these cars during my youth; 1613 & 1712 are very familiar. Loved the clickety-clack and the zzzzzzzorrrrch! and the smell of old handhold-polished wood, rusty metal and ozone. That tunnel is through Mount Washington, IIRC, and originally made just for the trolley line... it was scary how close the walls were when you zipped through.

mnem
And then there's the Duquesne Incline... http://www.duquesneincline.org/

The top picture in your post, 1713, the Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Trolley got into the news this spring. It still exists and the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum just acquired it this spring from whoever bought it when it was retired and the NFL and Steelers are chipping in on getting it restored and operational and painted back as the Terrible Trolley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrlmEcL4aFg

[AVGresponding]

Looks like TEA has finally made it... we're being probed by the big boys. Everybody gird your loins.
mnem

As long as the important bits are hidden behind membership, it's fine.

No, I was being silly; suggesting we should be on best behavior and not running around nekkid, you wild man...

mnem
fine, fine... I'll go put on pants...

That is your best behaviour...

[mnementh]

Well, yes; we all know how I feel aboot pants. I think putting them on voluntarily is a pretty big breakthrough for a tinkerdwagon...

mnem

[Specmaster]

Well, yes; we all know how I feel aboot pants. I think putting them on voluntarily is a pretty big breakthrough for a tinkerdwagon...

mnem

Yep, we don't want to see that do we

[BU508A]

Well, yes; we all know how I feel aboot pants. I think putting them on voluntarily is a pretty big breakthrough for a tinkerdwagon...

mnem

Perhaps you'll find this interesting:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/wo ... t-trousers

Eventually you could use it as a tent or so.

[mnementh]

Yeah, still waiting on the alterations to come back; they're a bit tight in the crotch.

mnem

[Specmaster]

Well, yes; we all know how I feel aboot pants. I think putting them on voluntarily is a pretty big breakthrough for a tinkerdwagon...

mnem

Perhaps you'll find this interesting:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/wo ... t-trousers

Eventually you could use it as a tent or so.

How about this pair, then. That is Cyril Smith, who used to be an MP over here in Rochdale. I remember at one time we used to have a tailor in our local market who claimed to be his tailor and they had a pair of Cyril Smiths trousers hanging on his stall.

Cyril Smith, MP.jpg

[Robert]

Well, yes; we all know how I feel aboot pants. I think putting them on voluntarily is a pretty big breakthrough for a tinkerdwagon...

mnem

Perhaps you'll find this interesting:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/wo ... t-trousers

Eventually you could use it as a tent or so.

So having looked at that page I had a look around the site and found a picture of me, wearing trousers

[mnementh]

Well, now we know where Lucas got the idea for Pod Racers...

mnem
I am not my pants.

[mansaxel]

Shit hotdog

What is the brown sauce? Chokolade or Balsamico?

What passes for mustard in the North, I'd guess. "Senf ist braun, suß, und gar nix scharf."