Test Equipment Anonymous

EC8010 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 10:34 pm Changing the subject, I thought I'd indulge in some pre-Christmas quality control this evening. We bought some 15yr Glenmorangie last week. First off, the bottle was fitted with a huge child-proof knob the size of a coffee cup over its neck. I had to resort to a hacksaw to cut the thing away. Sadly, once into a tumbler, it was a bit disappointing. We only get through a bottle or so a year, so we're scarcely expert, but it seemed a bit like some of the Australian Chardonnays late last century. They had a little too much oak to conceal other weaknesses, and this whisky seemed to have a little too much sherry finish to try conceal something else that wasn't quite right. It wasn't a patch on the stuff we had perhaps seven years ago...

I bought a bottle of Lidl's Ben Bracken Islay single malt for Christmas. Peaty, smokey, not overwhelming like some, but definitely an Islay single malt. £18.45 a bottle, Cheap for a single malt, they usually start around £30. I looked on the WWW and it's won a few prizes, in its category. They also do a Speyside and a Highland single malt.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 26, 2025 3:16 pm So far this season we've already had 4 small storms dropping an inch to 3 inches of snow. Then the following day the sun would come out with above freezing temps and melt it. But this looks like a big one.

Yeah, we got approx 5 inches overnight. My Saturday morning cardio:

. .

mnem
followed by coffee & toasted croissants with Snoopy as we watched my son and his visiting playmate finish clearing the drive and sidewalks:

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 4:29 pm

EC8010 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 25, 2025 10:34 pm Changing the subject, I thought I'd indulge in some pre-Christmas quality control this evening. We bought some 15yr Glenmorangie last week. First off, the bottle was fitted with a huge child-proof knob the size of a coffee cup over its neck. I had to resort to a hacksaw to cut the thing away. Sadly, once into a tumbler, it was a bit disappointing. We only get through a bottle or so a year, so we're scarcely expert, but it seemed a bit like some of the Australian Chardonnays late last century. They had a little too much oak to conceal other weaknesses, and this whisky seemed to have a little too much sherry finish to try conceal something else that wasn't quite right. It wasn't a patch on the stuff we had perhaps seven years ago...

I bought a bottle of Lidl's Ben Bracken Islay single malt for Christmas. Peaty, smokey, not overwhelming like some, but definitely an Islay single malt. £18.45 a bottle, Cheap for a single malt, they usually start around £30. I looked on the WWW and it's won a few prizes, in its category. They also do a Speyside and a Highland single malt.

Yes, Lidl is so often overlooked because it's not posh enough for some folk to be seen to have anything to do with such a low-grade establishment. On the other hand, get there first thing in the morning and you'd be surprised at the number of posh restaurants vans and sometimes, even chefs in there with trolleys piled high with all sort of fresh fruit and veg, meat, bags of flour, rice etc and crates of alcohol etc. checking out at the tills. Honestly you couldn't even make it up, the very same people who shun the store, along with Aldi, will then go and pay through the nose at these restaurants to eat the food that by and large came from there anyway.

.

So... this was my big surprise on Christmas Day:




And yes, it was my own damned fault; I forgot to check the tank in the base & add antifreeze this fall.




As it were Xmas and we hadn't done the dinner thing yet, I waited til the next day to triage the car...




...of course on Xmas it was 45°F; now it was 20°F.




The cowl vent grille was pretty repairable; it responded well to ordinary CA once I got it inside & warm...




...however this was not. Bezos' Online Crack Shop had the best price by $80, and quickest delivery. Still $170, as getting this thing out is a unmitigated bitch (bolts inside under the dash cover), so I was not putting it back in there with a motor made in the last millennium and a verified wobbly output shaft on the gearbox.

Now that we're dug out from our little blizzard, I called USAGlass.com; they surprised me with a $210 all-inclusive final quote, which is $40 less than my preliminary quote off their website. And a tomorrow service date, which will be the only warmish (approx 45°F again) day for over a week.

Hopefully it all goes as planned...


mnem
i need to run out and buy a LOTTO ticket right now...

Ouch, that sucks.

A very unwelcome development, however you may have gotten off lightly.

It looks as if it hit the windscreen and slid down. Windscreen replacement is a streamlined process. It could have hit the roof or the bonnet (hood). Dealing with the dents, spraying, paint matching is all expensive.

Last year my daughter suggested that her SO might like to move his car, just in case. He poo-poo-ed the idea, not unreasonably.

That night the silver birch fell into the space where his car had been.

Next time he tells me I'm worrying too much, I'll smile malevolently and remind him

those backboards have water in the base? never knew that.

around here they mostly pile concrete blocks to hold them in place.

some cranky old neighbors bitch when they see one go up......but it makes me smile to hear the neighbor kids outside dribbling and shooting.

you on the other hand should stay inside, watch from the window and avoid the inevitable knee surgery.

Zenith wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 10:33 am A very unwelcome development, however you may have gotten off lightly.

It looks as if it hit the windscreen and slid down. Windscreen replacement is a streamlined process. It could have hit the roof or the bonnet (hood). Dealing with the dents, spraying, paint matching is all expensive.

I am very aware of this; the last time SWMBO got in a accident, I drove to a boneyard in the next state to get body parts that matched... and I had to bite my tongue all the while dealing with a raging Trumper evangelist to get them.

As you might imagine, that was by far the harder part of that ordeal...

This was a freaky precise strike; the point of impact, the angle of the beam on the basketball goal and where it stopped when the hoop bottomed out on the driveway was all surgically precise, like it was calculated to only take out the WW wiper assembly and the windshield. I think it was Murphy giving me a big ol' middle finger for Xmas, cuz I've taken to cussing the mutherfucker out lately.

mnem
I shall not stop.

mnementh wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 6:02 pm .



The cowl vent grille was pretty repairable; it responded well to ordinary CA once I got it inside & warm...

mnem
i need to run out and buy a LOTTO ticket right now...

Cowl vent grille after scraping, sanding and buffing: Not perfect, but it will do. And once it gets a little road dust on it, pretty sure it’ll be completely unnoticeable.

Glass company called this morning to reschedule for tomorrow as it is expected to rain all day today; evidently mid-20s (approx -7° science) is okay, but actually raining is not.

mnem

Almost had a repeat of this yesterday (Sunday)....

viewtopic.php?t=266

Blondie woke up Sunday morning with extreme chills and a low grade fever. Rather than take a chance as to what happen 2 years ago took her to an urgent care facility at our local hospital. The flu is rampart here and the place was packed with a wait time of 2 hours to see a dr. Once she finally got in they transferred her to the ER because her heart rate was too high. The ER was also extremely crowded. But since Blondie had a history of heart condition she went to the front of the pack and was taken right in. Confirmed the high heart rate and started her on saline and acetaminophen to bring down the fever, which was successful. They did a COVID test and flu test. Both were negative but a flu test is not accurate at the early stages of symptoms. Took blood and chest X-ray. Everything was good except slightly elevated white cell count. Her heart rate came down and all other vitals were stable. Docs concluded she had early stage flu and started her on tamiflu. We finally got home at 5:30 PM last night. Today she is resting comfortably. Close call averted.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 5:00 pm Docs concluded she had early stage flu and started her on tamiflu. We finally got home at 5:30 PM last night. Today she is resting comfortably. Close call averted.

Good. The last time was a damned close run thing.

Zenith wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 8:27 pm

MED6753 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 5:00 pm Docs concluded she had early stage flu and started her on tamiflu. We finally got home at 5:30 PM last night. Today she is resting comfortably. Close call averted.

Good. The last time was a damned close run thing.

Last time is still very raw and even though she hates doctors and hospitals it was a no brainer to take her in.

another heads up for the agilent 54622d fan boys. (i'm lookin' at you dragon)

those 6 damn soft buttons under the crt have resisted all my bodges.

tried silver leaf from the hobby store over the carbon buttons and it lasted a couple of days.

tried cleaning the buttons with ipa and it lasted a week or two.

tried aluminium tape on the buttons and it lasted a month.

but then broke down and spent 5 bucks on eBay for these 4mm stick on buttons from "buttonworx" HOT DAMN! this looks like a permanent fix.

like the guy says.....nothing sticks to soft rubber. but the sticky side of these things goes on the circuit board and the old button pushes the new button. so far they actuate with a really light touch and have worked 100%. winner winner chicken dinner!

ps if someone has recommended these before and I missed it.....shame on me.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 5:00 pm all other vitals were stable. Docs concluded she had early stage flu and started her on tamiflu. We finally got home at 5:30 PM last night. Today she is resting comfortably. Close call averted.

Whew!!! Glad to hear that you dodged that bullet!!

-Pat

nixiefreqq wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 10:46 pm another heads up for the agilent 54622d fan boys. (i'm lookin' at you dragon)

those 6 damn soft buttons under the crt have resisted all my bodges.

tried silver leaf from the hobby store over the carbon buttons and it lasted a couple of days.

tried cleaning the buttons with ipa and it lasted a week or two.

tried aluminium tape on the buttons and it lasted a month.

but then broke down and spent 5 bucks on eBay for these 4mm stick on buttons from "buttonworx" HOT DAMN! this looks like a permanent fix.

like the guy says.....nothing sticks to soft rubber. but the sticky side of these things goes on the circuit board and the old button pushes the new button. so far they actuate with a really light touch and have worked 100%. winner winner chicken dinner!

ps if someone has recommended these before and I missed it.....shame on me.

I have recommended another Buttonworx product, their glue-on carbon discs. They do stick to the silicone membrane provided you haven't already rubbed all the old carbon off.



I have also used these (XBOX adhesive D-pad repair pads, available all over Bezos Online Crack Shop) cut apart in some cases where you can get the points to align with just one side of the contact; they add a tactile click which is very nice.



And, as a last, last-ditch solution... I have used these thin tactile switches, epoxied to the PCB and connected using thin shellac-coated magnet wire. They will often just fit if you shave 1-2mm from the contact point (where the carbon used to be) on the silicone membrane. Below is a similar repair done on the power button of a Yamaha YT-320 keyboard; this entire family of keyboards is well-known for this failure mode because carbon contact on PCB against carbon pad on the silicone membrane.







mnem
yes, you may touch it.

@menmenth
Why have the switch epoxied to the PCB? Surely just soldering to the pads is going to be mechanically strong enough? The only force being applied to the switch is going to be straight pressure back onto the PCB? What happens if the repair later fails? Breaking the epoxy bond is likely to ruin the PCB?

Specmaster wrote: ↑Tue Dec 30, 2025 8:53 am @menmenth
Why have the switch epoxied to the PCB? Surely just soldering to the pads is going to be mechanically strong enough? The only force being applied to the switch is going to be straight pressure back onto the PCB? What happens if the repair later fails? Breaking the epoxy bond is likely to ruin the PCB?

In that particular repair, the PCB is not perfectly flat anymore; grinding off the carbon pads made it slightly concave.

Even when you aren't using thin fly wires to make the connection and need the epoxy to keep the switch in place, a little dot of epoxy underneath before you solder it down ensures the switch can't wobble and eventually break the legs if you don't get it perfectly flat on the PCB. The legs are paper-thin.

No, epoxy is not stronger than the PCB, even cheap old FR2 like this one. I've epoxied the fuck out of DC power sockets and had to gouge them out later with Dremel and dikes. You have to be really careless and have an exceptionally strong bond over a large area before this is a concern.

Pads and traces, that's another story. You never know if you've got a compromised PCB with copper that's only holding on out of habit.

As always, every case is different and it's always a judgement call.

mnem

Happy Nude Ears, everyone!

Hope you have some good oomox!

mnem
”oooh, yessss… do that; that be niiiice…”

Just before the Xmas spirit disappears for another 50 weeks, 44C on Xmas day in Perth required serious effort to remain hydrated.
Home again this morning to NZ and the much more comfortable mid 20's.
Hope '26 is good for you all.

We have just had a really nice bowl of soup (two actually, because we both went back for seconds). Would make six restaurant servings.

I medium onion, finely chopped
3 medium King Edwards potatoes coarsely chopped (any old potato would do, but we had these left over from Christmas)
1 large leek chopped
200g Stilton

Lightly fry onions in butter in large saucepan. Add everything else plus a little water. Bring almost to boil, then simmer for ten to fiteen minutes. Attack with handheld zizzy thing in pan, Scoff. Accompany with port if you like.

We still have a Stilton and some spuds, so we'll be buying another leek.

Sounds nice unless you are downwind some time later....

No wind noticed as yet; seems safe enough. Pan was hard work to wash, though.

Had to lookup "stilton". Never heard of it but if it's anything like other bleu cheeses I would probably like it.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 06, 2026 8:13 pm Had to lookup "Stilton". Never heard of it but if it's anything like other bleu cheeses I would probably like it.

A good Stilton is the king of cheeses. Wonderful stuff, although it gives me a migraine. Unfortunately, Stilton tends to be a bit variable, unlike the French, Italian, and Danish industrially manufactured soft cheeses that are very consistent.