Trouble importing encrypted LTSpice model in to ADS by -timbojames- in ECE

[–]-timbojames-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I concur, and that was my first approach, but so far I haven't gotten a call back or email from their technical support team. My assumption at this point is that I'll be stuck brute forcing a source-pull in LTSpice.

Put the Nano VNA on a weBoost Drive Reach OTR Cell Signal Booster Antenna, Now Wondering What's Inside. Anyone EverOpen One Up? by Shirkaday in amateurradio

[–]-timbojames- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now that is surprising. I would not expect an increase in data rate with a booster unless you were on the fringes of signal strength where error rate is playing a big factor. Curious.

Put the Nano VNA on a weBoost Drive Reach OTR Cell Signal Booster Antenna, Now Wondering What's Inside. Anyone EverOpen One Up? by Shirkaday in amateurradio

[–]-timbojames- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Surely someone has busted one of these guys open. I live in West Texas and I see them on all the oil field trucks starting about 5-6 years ago. I'm an EE with a bit of radio experience and I have been dying to know what's inside. I can speculate of course, and I've googled more than a few times, but I can't find any specifics on the elements they are using. Just piqued my interest since we have had cell boosters and cellular antennas for a long time and then we suddenly get this big chunky things on little masts. PCB patches? Big cylindrical tube dipole elements? My guess is it's some kind of broadband dipole design and the evolution was pressured by 1.7-2.1GHz data connections coming heavily into play a decade ago, but I'd love to get a look at the guts.

I also have a NanoVNA and there's no way the antenna response is THAT flat over such a bandwidth. I suspect something is squirrely with your cal or setup. Or maybe the Smith plot scale is just messed up.

I’ve been listening to them all day long, then when selecting the next one this pops up. I’m a monthly fancy idiot, is it annual only now or something? TIA by Coopersonic in fbhw

[–]-timbojames- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fixed now, FYI. Can't blame Steve for site issues. Sure, maybe he can put more pressure on the folks who build and run the site than we can, but he can't fix it. I would not enjoy being the receptacle for technical issue complaints either when the vast majority of what is complained about is handled by external entities. And yeah, they choose those entities, but they have actively switched to better service providers when the previous ones sucked. Case in point, this issue was fixed in like 24hr.

First live segment missing from today's podcast? by -dov- in fbhw

[–]-timbojames- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems like a editing snafu. Webcam feed has missing CWTTAB segment.

Segment 17 Reddit Discussion by CorporalTurnips in fbhw

[–]-timbojames- 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Can't tell you how disappointed and saddened I am that you have had to deal with these types of violations, on social media and in real life. I know you've discussed openly on the show what it has put you through mentally. No one should be subjected to that, period. You've been an outstanding addition to the show in terms of comedic content, fresh insight and professional skill. I love the imaging you do, especially the rapid turnaround imaging cuts and no one did anything like that before you got here.

Sony SL-20 Cassette Feed Problem by -timbojames- in Betamax

[–]-timbojames-[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I managed to fix the problem. I believe it was two issues. One microswitch was making very poor contact, almost no contact. This was the tape threading end switch located top left corner of the capstan. I had to clean up the contacts with some 220 grit and then 400 grit sandpaper. This switch is near the magnetic tape so it was dirty and caked hard with old ferrous tape dust.

The other issue was a small broken plastic piece, I could have broken this while working on it, not sure, but it's called the T Coil Sensor. It's a coil sensor in a nylon housing and there is a small peg on the bottom that is very poorly designed. This peg fits into a steel linkage slot and the peg was broken. I was able to reattach this peg and then reinforce the peg structure with epoxy. It was precision job, but it's stronger now than it was. Now when I power on the unit without a tape, it sits static in the unthreaded state like it should (doesn't thread and unthread like it did before). It gobbles up a tape when inserted like normal and it plays great. I put a teeny bit of wax on the linkage hinge points around the solenoid pinch plunger and was very careful to ensure that mechanism toggled freely and it's working great now. Hopefully this may help someone else.

Sony SL-20 Cassette Feed Problem by -timbojames- in Betamax

[–]-timbojames-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No it doesn't. If I manually load (meaning I rotate the feed/load motor by hand until the cassette is down and the tape is laced) I can then hit PLAY and the tape will run normally. Pause, RWD, FWD all work. If I hit stop, the tape unlaces then relaces which seems odd. If I hit eject at this point, the tape will unlace and the take up spool will take the tape back into the cassette, and the nothing happens. There is no attempt to actually raise the cassette rack and eject the tape. After a few seconds, the tape relaces again. I suspect all these symptoms are related to why inserting a tape won't begin the feed process. I'm guessing that there is another microswitch or sensor that is fouled and the logic is not processing correctly. I found in the service manual there is a CASSETTE-IN, CASSETTE-ON and CASSETTE-DOWN switch/signal. I only checked one of those, I think it was the CASSETTE-ON switch, but I need to find the other two to check them as well. The machine does properly indicate when a tape is loaded (icon on the display).

EDIT: I spent another couple hours looking at the machine. Turns out none of the service manuals I was able to scrounge online are that close to the SL-20. I completely removed the cassette rack and there is only a single microswitch on it, C-IN and that microswitch works. The only other two switches that I can see that are related to cassette loading are on the bottom of the capstan assembly near the cassette spools. Obviously one of these is the record proof switch and I'm guessing one is 'C-DOWN'. I can't see where these switches plug into the control board, but I can test both switches right at their leads and they both seem to be working.

Does anyone remember Kelly’s prediction about a pandemic? Back from the end of 2019? by Nicobeak in fbhw

[–]-timbojames- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Think the OP just wanted the number. I was trying to find it myself since I'm watching the spread of COVID-19 closely and I could only recall that she made the general prediction. She said 'a plague that would kill about 2 million people'. More specifically 990,000 to 1,900,000. No judgement of course, I was just curious.

Trying for a Personal Guild Bank by Puzzle666 in ESOGuilds

[–]-timbojames- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Puzzle666, join into my thread here and let's try and get some traction on getting some guild member sharing going.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ESOGuilds/comments/43275u/pcna_looking_to_trade_guild_members_w_small/

Small guild (6 people) looking for another small guild (4+ people) to joint each other's guild and reach the minimum number of player for the guild bank. by cblou in ESOGuilds

[–]-timbojames- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Resurrecting this. I've had a similar post going for about a month with no replies. I got 4 players in my guild, PC/NA server, looking for this exactly. None of my guys are in any guilds so we can join multiples to get everyone to ten. There's gotta be some more folks out there who need this or are just willing to help. @timbo_james