T&L Publications

Got some nasty black chin hairs you need removed, huh?

A dead short is not a good description because everything has resistance, even short things and things that conduct very well.

Oh, gimme a break, Al. I'm obviously comparing an unloaded generator to one where you've strapped a 0.00247 ohm load to the output terminals.

One would think that a rare-earth magnet in a volume of mercury would act similar to a dead-shorted generator and be very difficult to move around in that medium. I have maybe a pound of Hg, but that's not enough for an experiment like that. And who wants to risk spilling that crap?!

Many wall warts are not polarized however. I hate polarized wall warts. Some even have ground pins. Polarization of those really limits how you can plug them into a receptacle. In fact, if you have two polarized wall warts and only one duplex receptacle, you're screwed unless you buy one of those 6...

Even though it may be a double-insulated device, the plug is still polarized because the hot wire is the one to be connected to the device's power switch, not the neutral. It's also the hot wire that's fused in the device if there's a fuse. It's just another safety step to help protect one who has t...

This is why they make laser printers. Much cheaper to operate and faster. No clogs.

If you get into all the training literature that is put out by Pace, you'll find that it's not only temperature, but the size of tip, amount of time spent on the joint and amount of bulk heat available that does the job. A lower-temp iron with a large heat capacity and the correct size tip will heat...

The Tek 400-series use no SMT components anywhere. Most likely, Tek figured that they were having failures relating to voltage on the original 47µF part and replaced it with two 24µ caps in parallel with a higher voltage rating. There may have been a size restriction that kept them from upping the v...

A singing Tesla coil? Wouldn't that be something like Ernest Borgnine singing nursery songs?

That serial number is high enough that your scope is probably near the last of the production of the 465 before the 465B was introduced. Make darned sure you find a recent manual or it won't show the latest mods.

Try Philips tubes?

It used to be that your could connect 9v batteries up Lego-style (+-+-+-+-+-+-+-) to create HV packs. With the newer alkaline versions, this isn't always possible for more than 2 or 3 batteries as the external dimensions of alkalines are a bit greater than the old carbon-zinc types and the pack quic...

The "B" battery won't draw that much current, so the stack of 9v batteries will last nearly their shelf life. The "A" battery on the other hand powers the tube filaments/heaters and won't last nearly as long. "C" or "AA" would be the cells to put in series the...

The reason being that the Copper, and or Silver Plated Contact traces on the PCB
will tarnish over time, stopping the button from conducting.

Unlike the oxides of copper or aluminum, silver tarnish is conductive, which is why it is so popular for high-end military electronic connectors.

I didn't think of the fact that using just one phase of a 3-phase VFD might not work right because of the lack of feedback (current vs. voltage phase, etc.), but I suppose that would be true. Trouble is, since it's a FHP motor, you probably can't sub a 3-phase motor because of the size, even with th...