Anybody checked out the bench equipment on eBay directly from China?

[GeoNOregon]

I'm an inventor and re-designer and have 20-40 years experience in a wide variety of areas and materials. I usually tell people I'm an artist who works in everything from cloth to stone. (It's simpler than saying inventor, and avoids the response: "What do you invent?")

An area I've been wanting to expand my knowledge in for some time is electronics and I'm finally on the way with some programmed learning texts and courses I've found and are wading into.

As I start to dabble outside of the text books, it's become obvious I need to invest in some bench equipment.  I don't have the money necessary to spend on all I might need, but I discovered some stuff on eBay that may make it possible for me to have the breadth of equipment I need at a very low price. This will allow me to get going and later upgrade the equipment to better brands/models if necessary and as I can afford it.

In the past year, a lot of direct-from-China sellers have popped up on eBay.  From what I've been able to tell, a lot of them are large, industrial manufacturers selling their products in 1's & 2's, instead of the quantities of 1,000 pieces, 5,000 feet, or in metric tons as you typically see from manufacturers of their size.  It's almost like they are using eBay as a way to distribute samples and get a little bit of cash flow in return.  Otherwise, I don't see how they can be making money on eBay, especially since a majority of them offer free shipping in addition to ridiculously low prices. (If anyone is interested, I have done some research on some of the products I've bought and the companies they came from in an attempt to figure out what's going on.)

Anyway, I have found sellers offering the 'guts' of test equipment at ridiculously low prices, (15.00-30.00). All they appear to need is a case and power supply.

I have put a sample of some of these 'guts' in a section of my online eBay collection. The section is titled 'Elec Bench Tools'. Below is a link to that collection:

http://www.ebay.com/cln/xann_enterprises/elec-bench-tools/95654162015

Specifically, I'm referring to the four items labled:

Transistor Tester Diode Triode Capacitance ESR Meter

L/C High Precision Inductance Capacitance LC Meter + SMD Clip

ESR Inductance Resistor LC Meter Tester NPN PNP Mosfet M168 Capacitance Kit

Big LCD Transistor Tester Diode Triode Capacitance ESR Meter MOS/PNP/NPN Mega328

These are a very small sample of the literally hundreds of eBay offerings of this kind of tech.

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Has anybody already seen these items and have an opinion on using them as a starting spot for an electronics work bench?

Anybody willing to take a look and render an opinion?

Seems to me these would be an inexpensive way to get started or assist someone learning electronics, even if they are not good enough for the long term.

Any thoughts, advice or opinions are welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks, in advance.


GeoD

[JacquesBBB]

Hi

Welcome to the forum.
You may not have noticed, but there is a search function on the forum.
Many of what you ask for is has been already discussed extensively.

Best wishes

[VictoriaGuy]

The search function here is not very powerful.
And, for the device - really variants of one device- you mention, you'll find a discussion thread with hundreds of replies, mostly on how to 'improve' the ebay device by re-programming it, etc.

I generally use Google with the site: option to search online sites.

Try a Google search string something like esr transistor capacitor tester site:http://www.eevblog.com and you'll find some info.

Lots of info here on soldering stations, power supplies, meters, etc.. as well.

[eas]

These three are all variants on the same project:

• Transistor Tester Diode Triode Capacitance ESR Meter
• ESR Inductance Resistor LC Meter Tester NPN PNP Mosfet M168 Capacitance Kit
• Big LCD Transistor Tester Diode Triode Capacitance ESR Meter MOS/PNP/NPN Mega328

I've tried out three different ones. My favorite is the GM328 from EZM Studios. I purchased it from the listing I linked to. The seller ships quickly and packs things well.

Whether any of them are essential to someone learning electronics, I don't know. It helps that the project is well documented, but whether the devices themselves are essential for a beginners bench?

I'd think though that you'd want a decent multimeter first. For power supplies, I've found the B3603 powered off a laptop power brick to be cheap and useful.

I also splurged on an oscilloscope and a decent soldering iron.

I suspect that rather than asking about specific modules, you might do well giving people a little more idea of what you want to do, and your idea of a reasonable budget.