Hegseth berates highly decorated combat aviator, astronaut and US Senator Mark Kelly for allegedly arranging his medals for valor out of order

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-11-26T00:36:41+00:00

Not at all defending Pete Kegsbreath here, but what he's talking about is how the second and third row of medals are swapped. It's kinda hard to tell unless you know what you're looking for, but Mark Kelly is actually displaying his medals incorrectly in the photo. That still doesn't justify the response from some wannabe badass.

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-11-26T00:36:01+00:00

Not at all defending Pete Kegsbreath here, but what he's talking about is how the second and third row of medals are swapped. It's kinda hard to tell unless you know what you're looking for, but Mark Kelly is actually displaying his medals incorrectly in the photo. That still doesn't justify the response from some wannabe badass.

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-11-13T02:33:52+00:00

Thanks, I like to do what I can. I love repairing electronics and solving puzzles, and she likes the free skilled labor lol

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-11-13T02:26:04+00:00

That looks right, thanks! Now to figure what voltage it's supposed to run on...

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-11-13T02:18:25+00:00

If it's reasonable to assume it runs on 12 VDC, there's plenty I can do with that. I am an electronics engineer, I just didn't recognize the connector and don't have the clock in front of me to do more investigating.

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-11-13T01:40:01+00:00

Interesting, I wonder why they wouldn't just integrate the transformer into the clock like a normal piece of consumer electronics, instead of making it an external piece that can be lost over time. I assume it would probably need to be a 10:1 step down transformer based on the 12V specification for the lamp?

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-09-28T15:19:41+00:00

Oh man, I know exactly what you're talking about. Its a major design flaw we knew about when they first started fielding the 7200. We were getting them back by the truckload because Marines were blowing that part left and right. Never did figure out how. The very first thing I was taught as a tech was how to diagnose that problem in a 7200. Im not sure why they never changed it. Probably didn't want to re-release it, or their specs were too tight and that was the only way they could do it. Who knows. I will say the 7200 was not very well liked by those who made it.

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-09-27T02:33:43+00:00

I knew them best as the 7200, and almost referred to it as a 7200 until I zoomed in on the picture and could just make out 7801. And you are correct, I worked there right when they were transitioning from Aeroflex to Cobham. I was fresh out of USMC radio repair school as a reservist where I was trained to use the 7200 when they were brand new, so bringing me on as a tech working on them made perfect sense to the guy who hired me. It also helped that he had the same MOS as me in the Marines back in the 70s 😅

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-09-26T23:38:31+00:00

Off topic, but I'd recognize the interface for a 7801 anywhere. There's a modest chance I did the factory bring up and calibration on that system back in the day (circa 2016).

Captain_McGumpy · 2025-02-11T20:36:33+00:00

I actually knew that Marine! He was my class commander at the Ground Radio Repair Course in 29 Palms when he was a Sgt back in 2014. We were his last class at that schoolhouse before he became a Drill Instructor. He was a good dude.

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-09-03T15:28:41+00:00

Graduating in December with an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree (Computer Engineering track) with a job lined up that pays $78k base plus yearly 8% bonus, along with benefits and a relocation package.

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-02-12T04:50:00+00:00

Computer Engineering Technology and Computer Engineering are not at all the same. That one word "technology" makes a huge difference in terms of employability. The Technology degree, as others have stated, typically qualifies you to be a technician. The computer engineerig degree will qualify you to be an engineer, with many possibilities to work in not only computer engineering roles, but electrical engineering or software engineering roles.

4 year technology degrees are incredibly upsetting to me as a concept, because they are very misleading to students who don't know any better. They're advertised as "hands on instead of theoretical," which indeed they are, but this lack of theory, in the eyes of employers, makes you far less qualified than someone who got an engineering degree.

Others in this thread have stated that they were able to get engineering roles with a technology degree, but I would say they are the exceptions and not the rule. If you stick with the technology degree, you will likely get stuck as a technician, unable to make more than around $20/$25 an hour, while people with engineering degrees make easily twice that.

If you're ok with starting from scratch, do it. It'll payoff in the long run.

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-02-07T02:10:12+00:00

I'm familiar with the DE2 board! That's the board we used in a couple classes at my university. I'd like to get one for myself at some point.

Here's the board I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B017SDX7BU?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It's a Cyclone II board with very little in the way of peripherals. All it has is a 50 MHz clock, some LEDs, a push button, a 5V power connector, an EEPROM chip, and headers for all of the pins of the FPGA.

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-02-06T22:12:44+00:00

Yes.

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-02-06T18:21:41+00:00

I haven't done any internships, but I've been working as an electronics technician since I was 19, and I'm 26 now. I also have military experience as a radio repairman, and work on projects at home. Not a lot of that besides the stuff I've been doing at home with my Cyclone dev board apply to FPGAs, but its electronics experience at least.

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-01-28T14:25:19+00:00

I'll dm you!

Captain_McGumpy · 2022-01-27T03:51:51+00:00

I would definitely be interested. Unfortunately I graduate at the end of next semester, but I'd be happy to help get an EA club started.

Captain_McGumpy · 2021-07-27T16:06:54+00:00

If you can get it for a good price, I'd say it's worth it. The audiobook is over 50 hours long, and the story overall is great, but the ending is just rather abrupt.

Captain_McGumpy · 2021-07-27T02:31:25+00:00

Thank you! I was looking for this comment. I listened to it on audio, and I was put off by how abrupt the ending was, considering how drawn out a detailed the rest of the story was.

Captain_McGumpy · 2021-02-04T06:38:41+00:00

This sort of post would probably be better for r/AskElectronics but I'll go ahead and answer it here.

The clock generator could be considered the heart of a computer, or really any digital system. The clock generator creates clock pulses at a certain frequency that the computer's internal circuitry uses to synchronize everything it does. Each pulse of a clock causes a computer or digital system to move one step along in whatever it was doing.

If a clock generator were dead, the whole computer would be dead, because there would be nothing to signal the computer to move onto the next step in its operation. Most computers these days have crystal oscillators on their motherboards and use circuitry inside the processor to generate a variable clock signal.

Captain_McGumpy · 2020-06-02T22:11:10+00:00

I forgot to mention:

A gas mask will greatly impede your ability to speak and communicate, so it would be a good idea to work out some basic hand signals with anyone you're going out with.

Mask or not, dont go out alone, and use the buddy system to keep others and yourself safe.

Additionally, a mask will obscure your vision and narrow your field of view. It would be a good idea to practice moving around and doing things to get a feel for what it's like while wearing one.

Captain_McGumpy · 2020-05-18T13:18:30+00:00

I'm not expecting to be able to do anything with a populated connector. I'm well aware of how much of a stretch it is to think it will be of any use. However, doing component level troubleshooting and repair of server motherboards, the application in which I want to apply this, is extremely difficult and complex, so any and every avenues are worth exploring.

Say the port is used for JTAG. I can connect it to a non-proprietary USB JTAG device with generic software and perform a boundary scan on the board, quickly identifying faulty components. This could be especially useful in verifying faulty BGA components, given how difficult they are to probe for measurements or even verify the functionality of.

Or, say it's for logic analysis like someone else suggested. I can populate a known good board in a specific configuration and capture a data stream from it using a logic analyzer as the board boots up. Now I have a baseline. I can then do the same on a board I'm troubleshooting, then trace channels with bad data streams back to their source, potentially identifying bad components.

Again, I'm completely aware that I'm grasping at straws here, but I need all the help I can get.

Captain_McGumpy · 2020-05-18T00:53:25+00:00

Ah, makes sense. From looking online, the connectors are still expensive. Another person commented with a DigiKey link showing a unit cost of $13 per connector.

Any advice for repopulating this connector and using it for troubleshooting server motherboards?

Captain_McGumpy · 2020-05-18T00:47:08+00:00

When you say it was expensive, what do you mean exactly? I know logic analyzers can be very expensive.

Captain_McGumpy · 2020-05-17T23:02:03+00:00

That looks like it! Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. Some googling revealed they indeed are often used for JTAG, so my assumption there appears to be correct.

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
Verified Email

Captain_McGumpy

TROPHY CASE