Author Topic: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!  (Read 2753931 times)

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Offline Dubbie

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5000 on: December 30, 2017, 07:43:34 am »
Just bought a LimeSDR. Looking forward to dipping my toes deeper into RF. I like the look of GNU radio and hopefully I should be able to cobble together a receiver for a very low power transmitter I have built.
 

Offline JustSquareEnough

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5001 on: December 30, 2017, 07:46:36 am »
some new supplies for the bench.
 

Offline TerraHertz

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5002 on: December 30, 2017, 11:53:23 pm »
some new supplies for the bench.

 ;D Two fine swords.


I predict the plain & simple one will become your favorite.  Moveable parts down around the pointy end are annoying.
After you decide you like the Pentel, I recommend buying a carton full. Such a good thing; they are bound to stop making them.

Here is where I bought a pile of the 0.5mm 2B leads:
  https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5-pcs-lot-2B-2H-HB-0-5-0-7mm-long-size-Lead-automatically-lead-extra/32719945919.html
US$1.29 for 5 packs. 18 leads per pack.

Those are unusually long; too long to fit in standard pencils. But it's easy to bulk-snap them in half, which gives about the right length. Put several leads side by side on a sheet of flat paper on a hard flat surface. Press the center with a steel ruler edge. They all snap cleanly. Doing a whole pack at once gives you leads for a year.


Edit to add: My recent comical fail purchase - an LED worklight on a stand, from the local Bunnings hardware store.
The light looks great, the stand works well and has wide-spreading tripod legs for stability. Being LED it won't break any lamp filament if it falls over or is bumped while on. Unlike halogen worklights.
But... when I finally needed to use it, guess what?
You know those LED torches that have several modes, that you must cycle through all the modes with the single button? Where one of the modes is 'emergency blinker', which one never wants and is so annoying to have to cycle through?
Or the type where you cycle through modes by doing rapid power off-on switches, except sometimes the torch forgets the last mode and you get a random one? Also annoying.

Anyway, I turn this light on, and it has an emergency  blink mode. It has ONE mode - blink. I can't find any way to get it into 'just work you f*cking thing' mode. There's only one control - power on-off. Rapid power cycling via that button or the mains plug make no difference, though ONCE it came up in normal-on mode. Cannot repeat that. There is no mention in the 'manual-ha-ha' of any modes, or blinking.

Trying to decide whether to disassemble it out of curiosity (maybe there is a PCB with some mode selection solder pads?), or just take it back for refund/replacement. It was $89, so not a trivial thing to void the waranty.

Sorry, photo is just a still. Would need to make a video to show the blinking.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2017, 12:18:29 am by TerraHertz »
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5003 on: December 30, 2017, 11:58:39 pm »
Just ordered one of these, already have one of a different make but has so much free play that the slightest tap on it and I'm looking something completely different. This ought to be better in that respect as it has lots of channels to keep it sturdy.

Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5004 on: December 31, 2017, 12:02:27 am »
Just ordered one of these, already have one of a different make but has so much free play that the slightest tap on it and I'm looking something completely different. This ought to be better in that respect as it has lots of channels to keep it sturdy.


Which one is that? I'm looking into buying a microscope to do some SMD inspection work too and I'm not quite prepared to go all in and by a binocular microscope just yet.
 

Online tautech

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5005 on: December 31, 2017, 12:03:39 am »
Just ordered one of these, already have one of a different make but has so much free play that the slightest tap on it and I'm looking something completely different. This ought to be better in that respect as it has lots of channels to keep it sturdy.


Is it the same as Defpoms one he got from Banggood ?
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5006 on: December 31, 2017, 12:24:46 am »
Just ordered one of these, already have one of a different make but has so much free play that the slightest tap on it and I'm looking something completely different. This ought to be better in that respect as it has lots of channels to keep it sturdy.


Is it the same as Defpoms one he got from Banggood ?


Yes its the same but with a metal stand so it should be more sturdy , at least thats what I'm hoping for. I don't know if it will also be possible to plug it into my computer and see the image live on the monitor rather than its own screen, we'll have to wait see on that one.
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5007 on: December 31, 2017, 12:30:53 am »
I also purchased today some more parts to make up another T12 soldering station thats slightly different to the other one to see which is better. To keep it subjective I have the same case and power supply but this time a different control module and the same handle but the system is 5 core while the Quicko one I already have is a 4 core. 5 cores seems to be more the industry norm so I thought I'd check it out, like meters, never have to many irons  :-DD

If anyone is interested I'll posts the photos of the parts I ordered later.
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline jonovid

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5008 on: December 31, 2017, 12:45:31 am »
Just ordered one of these, already have one of a different make but has so much free play that the slightest tap on it and I'm looking something completely different. This ought to be better in that respect as it has lots of channels to keep it sturdy.


Is it the same as Defpoms one he got from Banggood ?


Yes its the same but with a metal stand so it should be more sturdy , at least thats what I'm hoping for. I don't know if it will also be possible to plug it into my computer and see the image live on the monitor rather than its own screen, we'll have to wait see on that one.

looks very chinese, I can see dash cam electronics hiding in plain sight.  ;D  good frames per second with this one, -see yt video
do hope you got micro SD and video recording, you can never be certain, may even got a mic, loop recording, motion detection,   :-+
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5009 on: December 31, 2017, 01:01:15 am »
Yes you do have a microsd slot and also video recording, DefPoms actually did a quick video and was impressed with it. Of course it has its limitations but for amount of use its going to get from me, it should be plenty good enough and also for the average hobbyist I would think.  :-+
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline mtdoc

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5010 on: December 31, 2017, 04:30:46 am »
Cheap-ass air compressor. Wanted a light, small footprint compressor for my lab. Tired of hauling my 6 gallon pancake compressor from my garage shop. $40 at Harbor Freight.   We'll see how it holds up...


My personal favorite for small, very quiet, cheap, compressed air.....just purchased 3 of these. $135 each. Now I have a total of 4 of them. The first one has quite a few running hours and still going strong all day, every day. Literally, 7 days/week cycling around 20-30 times per day for around 3 years. Not bad for $135 and being quiet all along.

Yeah, the HF compressor turned out to be too loud for the lab. It’s now relegated to tire inflation duty in our second garage.

I picked up one of those California Air Tools compressors from Zoro at 25% off and damn that thing is quiet- and fast! Perfect for the lab. Thanks for the recommendation rx8pilot!
 

Offline blackbird

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5011 on: December 31, 2017, 04:45:19 pm »
Received a package from Denmark. A small extra present for my son who had his 2nd birthday a few days ago. Including an extra gift from Lego.

In a few years time I hope to build the rocket together with him like Dave did with Sagan  ;)
 

Offline nanofrog

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5012 on: December 31, 2017, 07:32:21 pm »
In a few years time I hope to build the rocket together with him like Dave did with Sagan  ;)
Sounds like the both of you will be in for some great memories.  :-+
 

Offline rrinker

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5013 on: January 01, 2018, 12:40:04 am »
 I got the Lego Saturn V for Christmas. It was a load of fun putting it together, and it's quite a remarkable model.
 

Offline rdl

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5014 on: January 01, 2018, 02:12:41 am »
This showed up a couple of days ago. Like many of my ebay purchases, I have no idea why I bought it. It came with a board to turn it into a headphone amp, which I may or may not ever build.

 

Offline cdev

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5015 on: January 01, 2018, 03:26:07 am »
Is that -gasp- a vacuum tube?


This showed up a couple of days ago. Like many of my ebay purchases, I have no idea why I bought it. It came with a board to turn it into a headphone amp, which I may or may not ever build.


"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline cdev

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5016 on: January 01, 2018, 03:32:00 am »
Happy New Year, everyone- I hope this year brings peace and prosperity to all of you.
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline TerraHertz

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5017 on: January 01, 2018, 03:34:29 am »
This showed up a couple of days ago. Like many of my ebay purchases, I have no idea why I bought it. It came with a board to turn it into a headphone amp, which I may or may not ever build.

What the hell? Dual valves, built using VFD construction? This exists?
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Offline cdev

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5018 on: January 01, 2018, 03:45:25 am »
This looks like it right here..

http://korgnutube.com/en/ 

It should be mentioned that NASA did this quite some time ago, but it wasn't used in audio equipment, it was for space..

BC radiation.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2018, 03:46:57 am by cdev »
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."
 

Offline TerraHertz

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5019 on: January 01, 2018, 04:28:05 am »
Cool. So while we're talking about obscurity, some small things I've bought recently.

* An old, old ISA bus IEEE-488 controller card. HP 3643-E2073-66501. Nothing special except that it is the exact model used in a known-working setup of the same HP 5973 mass selective detector as I have. See http://everist.org/NobLog/20170224_summer_vacuum_odyssey.htm#msd
My MSD is in unknown functional condition, but it appears to be complete. Now all I need before I can even start evaluating it, is the software package. Anyone have a copy of HP ChemStation  G1701BA Version B.01.00 ?

* A rare old cardboard slide calculator. Bell Telephone Labs 'Resonance Computer'. I collect such old cardboard slides, have a few now. The aim is to put them free online for historical interest and as working animated tools, via scanning and Javascript.

* A General Radio 900-TUA RF microwave tuner.  My second one, because it was cheap, and it's possible to need two. And shiny!

* Tube of Silicone High Vacuum Grease 976V.

* The geography of thought : How Asians and Westerners think differently - and why. Richard E. Nisbett.
   Via abebooks.com from England.  Book mentioned by Naomi Wu (SexyCyborg).
« Last Edit: January 01, 2018, 04:30:01 am by TerraHertz »
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Offline AF6LJ

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5020 on: January 01, 2018, 04:34:14 am »
This showed up a couple of days ago. Like many of my ebay purchases, I have no idea why I bought it. It came with a board to turn it into a headphone amp, which I may or may not ever build.

What the hell? Dual valves, built using VFD construction? This exists?
Actually yes it does...
Not the first time I have seen these.
Most of the advancements made in vacuum tube design that occurred during the fifties though the seventies have gone unnoticed. Aerospace, and the nuclear arms race pushed this technology until the transistor and integrated circuit were ready for prime time. Even still vacuum tubes didn't leave aerospace entirely. (as far as I know)
Sue AF6LJ
 

Offline TerraHertz

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5021 on: January 01, 2018, 05:18:18 am »
Hey Sue, please don't think I'm putting valves down. I *like* vacuum electron devices. Just hadn't seen an amplifying valve done using VFD construction. I wonder if those are light sensitive at all?
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Offline TX-RX

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5022 on: January 01, 2018, 07:45:20 am »
Recently I got myself a vintage ESI RV622A voltage divider. Interestingly, it was apparently owned by NASA before, so I hope it does not beam me into a parallel universe when pressing the wrong button. When supplying 10 V (10.000062 V according to my DMM) and dialing in .123456 it provides an output voltage of 1.234324 V. This represents a deviation of about 0.02% - not bad for such an old device. However, I had to treat the switching contacts with a lot of  DeoxIT D5 before...

Happy New Year to everyone!
 

Offline PTR_1275

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5023 on: January 01, 2018, 09:54:00 am »
Recently I got myself a vintage ESI RV622A voltage divider. Interestingly, it was apparently owned by NASA before, so I hope it does not beam me into a parallel universe when pressing the wrong button. When supplying 10 V (10.000062 V according to my DMM) and dialing in .123456 it provides an output voltage of 1.234324 V. This represents a deviation of about 0.02% - not bad for such an old device. However, I had to treat the switching contacts with a lot of  DeoxIT D5 before...

Happy New Year to everyone!

I have a RV632 from when they were still known as Electro Measurements Inc.

Apart from taking a known voltage and giving a ratio output, what would the practical or realistic uses of these be?

I have a few EDC 10v references that I can dial up what voltage I want, so would that RV632 redundant? Are they more useful for people who only have a fixed voltage and allow them to get any voltage below that point?

The RV632 has a input impeadance of either 5k or 10k ohm, so it isn’t going to be of much use with higher voltages or voltages that suffer from loading.
 

Offline AllTheGearNoIdea

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Re: What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!
« Reply #5024 on: January 01, 2018, 10:22:41 am »
My Christmas presents to myself was the very cheapest CNC engraver / router I could purchase from ebay for £125.  This is a self assembly kit and I just fancied doing a quick and easy build to help fight the Christmas holiday boredom. I definitely class this machine as a toy although I am hoping with a bit of tinkering that I can get it to mill out PCBs. On that note does anyone know if FR1 or 2 copper clad board is still available as not found any on eBay etc.

The CNC I bought was called the 3018 Woodpecker CNC but they go by lots of different names etc.

I would definitely recommend buying this machine for the fun of building it and it’s low cost. It’s probably worth more than the sum of its parts etc.  I’m hoping to purchase a larger milling machine  when the sales come up later in the year and planning on doing a CNC conversion and think one of these little machines is a good learning tool etc.  I been using Fusion 360 for a little while now and look forward to trying out some of its CAM features soon.

Regards Chris

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