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

[MED6753]

If I were in the market for a performance car it would be one of these.

https://www.caranddriver.com/honda/civic-type-r

https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r

I'd always imagined you to be a souped-up 1970 Plymouth Barracuda kinda guy.

The only muscle car I owned was a 1965 Chevy Malibu SS like this but mine was nowhere as pristine.

[MED6753]

I remember the answer given to the question "what do I need to beat a Mustang?" asked in the late 90s on the Miata mailing list. The reply? "A corner!"

Even though the Mustang was a POS at handling the best car chase ever filmed was this. Count how many hub caps the Dodge Charger loses. (It's more than 4 )

Love the double clutch shifting. I never got good at doing that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZ-BHBKyos

[vk6zgo]

I remember the answer given to the question "what do I need to beat a Mustang?" asked in the late 90s on the Miata mailing list. The reply? "A corner!"

Even though the Mustang was a POS at handling the best car chase ever filmed was this. Count how many hub caps the Dodge Charger loses. (It's more than 4 )

Love the double clutch shifting. I never got good at doing that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZ-BHBKyos

Keep an eye on the green VW that they passed three times----it must have been "Herbie" in drag!

[Robert]

My last performance car was an estate (wagon).
Had 275 HP, 296ft-lb, <6s 0-60, 155 MPH (limited) from a 2.67l (163 in3) V6. And that was a late 90's design.
Terribly complex though. Twin turbo, 30 valves, 4 camshafts VVT, etc. (The extra 10 HP over spec was from a Miltec mild exhaust).
Audi S4 Avant (B5). Would not have an Audi now though for lots of reasons including costs and driver image.

[Specmaster]

I remember the answer given to the question "what do I need to beat a Mustang?" asked in the late 90s on the Miata mailing list. The reply? "A corner!"

Even though the Mustang was a POS at handling the best car chase ever filmed was this. Count how many hub caps the Dodge Charger loses. (It's more than 4 )

Love the double clutch shifting. I never got good at doing that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZ-BHBKyos

Nope, it was only 4 hub caps, part of that footage was the same footage but filmed from a different vantage point.

[Cerebus]

If I were in the market for a performance car it would be one of these.

https://www.caranddriver.com/honda/civic-type-r

https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r

I'd always imagined you to be a souped-up 1970 Plymouth Barracuda kinda guy.

Aw c'mon. Harley Lowrider and a beard you could lose a badger in. Oh, and a Yosemite Sam hat.

[Zenith]

If I were in the market for a performance car it would be one of these.

https://www.caranddriver.com/honda/civic-type-r

https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-type-r

I'd always imagined you to be a souped-up 1970 Plymouth Barracuda kinda guy.

Aw c'mon. Harley Lowrider and a beard you could lose a badger in. Oh, and a Yosemite Sam hat.

Well I was thinking a 'cuda with a Confederate flag on the bonnet, but maybe you're right. Billy Gibbons and his 1933 Ford Coupe is closer the mark.

https://static1.hotcarsimages.com/wordp ... lCurve.jpg

[MED6753]

Aw c'mon. Harley Lowrider and a beard you could lose a badger in. Oh, and a Yosemite Sam hat.

That's my younger brother. He's the hard core biker. I've always been a car guy.

[MED6753]

Well I was thinking a 'cuda with a Confederate flag on the bonnet, but maybe you're right. Billy Gibbons and his 1933 Ford Coupe is closer the mark.

https://static1.hotcarsimages.com/wordp ... lCurve.jpg

Only ignorant low lifes fly the confederate flag and claim it to be part of their "heritage".

[vk6zgo]

A 1938 Aussie bodied straight 8 Buick "sloper" for me ---not high performance, but the "cool factor" is supremely high!

[Zenith]

Anyone has any insights or knowledge of what's happening with the K04BB site?

Good news. It's back!

There's no indication what caused the outage.

[MED6753]

So true on this side of the pond.

[mansaxel]

So true on this side of the pond.

I should make one with 6 fwd positions for mine. Lots and then some youngsters here get automatic-only licenses; all hybrids and electrics are automatic or gear-free. The joke would transfer well on here.

[tggzzz]

So true on this side of the pond.

I should make one with 6 fwd positions for mine. Lots and then some youngsters here get automatic-only licenses; all hybrids and electrics are automatic or gear-free. The joke would transfer well on here.

Pah.

One of my cars had 16 forward gears and 4 reverse gears.

Given that there were three gear levers[1], you can imagine there was a lot of overlap

BTW: neat image But I thought it applied to all leftpondians

[1] the normal one, the "normal" high-box/low-box", and an additional overdrive.

[bd139]

I had one of them too

[Zenith]

One of my cars had 16 forward gears and 4 reverse gears.

Different from the days when most cars had three forward gears and reverse, with syncromesh only on 2nd and 3rd. This was luxury compared to earlier crash gearboxes where you had to double declutch to change gear.

I've only known one person with an automatic only driving licence. Automatics were never all that popular in the UK.

[MED6753]

Different from the days when most cars had three forward gears and reverse, with syncromesh only on 2nd and 3rd. This was luxury compared to earlier crash gearboxes where you had to double declutch to change gear.

I've only known one person with an automatic only driving licence. Automatics were never all that popular in the UK.

I remember those 3 speed gearboxes with 1st gear being a sliding gear with no syncromesh.

There is no such thing as an "automatic only" license here.

[bd139]

I remember those 3 speed gearboxes with 1st gear being a sliding gear with no syncromesh.

There is no such thing as an "automatic only" license here.

To be fair the driving tests I've seen in the US just make sure you're not DUI when you turn up and that you can breathe.

Hardly much point in enforcing distinct standards on people!

[MED6753]

To be fair the driving tests I've seen in the US just make sure you're not DUI when you turn up and that you can breathe.

Hardly much point in enforcing distinct standards on people!

Not far from the truth.

[Cubdriver]

As one who’s been driving for years now and got my license immediately at sixteen, it’s easy to say this, but getting licensed should be much more difficult than it is. As BD mentions above, pretty much if you show up upright and ambulatory it seems you’re good to go here in the US. I think it’s a bit more involved now as they have graduated licenses for younger new drivers (limits to passengers, only relatives, etc), though I haven’t kept up with it as I’ve no reason to.

Back in 1981, my driving test at the DMV consisted of a multiple guess test followed by a perhaps ten minute ride down the street and around through a park then back to the DMV. They were looking for you to make a show of adjusting the mirrors (ridiculous as I’d adjusted them to drive there), signal turns appropriately, stop at stop signs and not be a complete idiot for maybe three miles on the road. Oh, and park (in an angled space, not even the dreaded parallel parking so many seem incapable of). The truly frightening thing is hearing that some kids had to repeat that test more than once. WTF? (I had attended a driving school, so it’s possible that this fact and reports from their instructors might have influenced the ease of my test, but if not, ai yi yi!!)

-Pat

[Specmaster]

I had one of them too

So did I, but now I don't and also have Keyless Entry...but some might say I have the ultimate antitheft device, the car itself, its a Skoda

[Specmaster]

One of my cars had 16 forward gears and 4 reverse gears.

Different from the days when most cars had three forward gears and reverse, with syncromesh only on 2nd and 3rd. This was luxury compared to earlier crash gearboxes where you had to double declutch to change gear.

I've only known one person with an automatic only driving licence. Automatics were never all that popular in the UK.

I never had double declutch on changing up a gear, just make a leisurely change then but coming down a cog certainly had to double declutch and also adjust the engine revs otherwise there was a massive grinding of gears, and on a bus, that is a hell of racket and undignified

As to luxury on my car of the time, a 1957 Hillman Minx, the only luxury that it would appear to have had over most cars of the time, was a 4 speed transmission with full synchromesh, 47hp, 1400cc, 75mpg max, 26mpg and a 0-60mph time of wait for it...23seconds, oh my, how things have changed.

[25 CPS]

Good to see you at least poke your head up. Fingers crossed that you get a bit of a break to decompress and enjoy yourself a bit. I suppose that feast beats famine where work is involved, but neither can be a permanent condition!

-Pat

I'm on holiday now. It's been nice to not set the alarm clock and sleep in yesterday and today, and spend some time decompressing.

I totally forgot to post a few pictures of repairing that alarm clock. This is what happens when you don't have time to enjoy your workshop and do a total over-the-top geekout on a simple one capacitor repair. About the only thing I didn't do was put an oscilloscope on it to see how bad the DC looked:





That's the internals of the clock exposed including the faulty 200 uF filter capacitor on the left. The main guts of the operation looks like it's an LM8560 chip but I haven't looked it up yet. The ripple voltage is horrible.







Testing the replacement capacitor bridged in across the original which reduced the ripple voltage from close to 3V down to less than 50 mV. I removed the original and permanently installed the replacement and put the clock back together.





I put the original capacitor on the Keysight U1733C out of curiosity to see how bad it was using the 120 Hz test frequency to check it at the ripple frequency it would've been exposed to in-circuit. Most of the capacity is gone and the ESR is horrible.



The Chinese tester whose breakout cable I repaired at the same time couldn't even make sense of it.

What surprised me in this repair is how much quieter the clock's little transformer runs now that it's got a fresh filter capacitor. It was humming loudly with the original one and I didn't notice it as it got louder over the years. Anyways, the tentative plan is to put the dead speaker from the mosque on the bench tomorrow afternoon and sometime while I'm off, the little HP nixie frequency counter.

[tautech]

It's always a crapacitor !

[MED6753]

This week on vacation (holiday) in Williamsburg, Virginia. Today we visited Jamestown where you Limeys named everything after King James and attempted to set up a profit center but failed miserably and the settlement almost completely collapsed. The Indians tried several times to get rid of you guys too but settlers kept coming. We were taught in school that this was the first permanent English settlement in America and the start of the massive migration from there to here so I guess I should thank you.