Author Topic: How much has EEVblog cost you? (Read 29192 times)

mariush · « **Reply #25 on:** March 11, 2012, 10:41:36 pm »

The excellent soldering tutorial videos convinced me to get a Hakko 936 off eBay... it is indeed A LOT easier to work with adjustable temperature soldering guns compared to those cheap 5-10$ crap tools.

I also got a hot air Atten station, the one reviewed by Dave, and it still works great, and later on I also got a Uni-T UT-61E multimeter, after viewing the 50$ and 100$ multimeter reviews. Very happy with the 61e multimeter, much better than the cheap 3 digit meter I had before.

As for how much it cost me, I'd have to say going to a school to learn all that I learned from the videos (and no only learning but solidifying what I already knew vaguely) would have been more expensive... the blog and videos are more valuable then what I've spent in actual hardware.

jyaan · « **Reply #26 on:** March 12, 2012, 04:01:39 am »

I think a little over $400 and I don't even have an oscilloscope or power supply yet.

Was really more than I should have, but I wanted at least a couple decent (and safe!) things. Been searching this forum, craigslist and e-bay, etc. for a scope, and I'll probably build a wall-wart-powered linear supply myself.

DavidJRobertson · « **Reply #27 on:** March 18, 2012, 06:38:59 pm »

Absolutely nothing because I have practically no money

Right now I have £0.82 in my bank account...

Ajahn Lambda · « **Reply #28 on:** March 18, 2012, 09:19:46 pm »

Quote from: DavidJRobertson on March 18, 2012, 06:38:59 pm

Absolutely nothing because I have practically no money
Right now I have £0.82 in my bank account...

Woohoo, join the club!

Broke and loving it.

Since I've been collecting electrical goodies long before I found the EEVblog, I've probably dumped thousands into projects and hardware over the years. I'd say Dave hasn't cost me money, but rather he's made me more aware of potentially better investments. Therefore, he may well have actually saved me money, over the past six months or so, over what I would've spent on things that may or may not have been beneficial to me.

A few things Dave has made me realize:

1. There is no substitute for good instrumentation.
2. The best designs are simple, elegant, and easy to use.
3. If you don't understand it, you don't understand it.

4. Your customers WILL pick up on how much you really care about them, by the quality of your products.
5. The importance of [thoughtfully] calling out bad designs, no matter how large or small the maker may be.

bingo600 · « **Reply #29 on:** April 04, 2012, 03:51:35 pm »

This site is killing me

Within the last month i have read about ... And gotten

New Soldering Iron : Quick-202D - 230€ with extra tips & shipping
www.ebay.de/itm/270617054171

2 new PSU's : HP 6632B - £300 w. shipping
www.ebay.de/itm/220975363992

1 new Multimeter : Agilent 34401A - $500 w. shipping
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Hewlett-Packard-HP-Agilent-34401A-6-5-Digit-Multimeter-/230746903002

I never thought i'd pay more for my Meter than my Scope's (Rigol DS1052E and DS1102E)
Well , i like my scope(s).

The 1052 were bought after Dave & co. did the 100MHz hack of the 1052E.
The 1102E was brought back by a friend from China (bought on TaoBao) , and was cheaper than the 1052E via Ebay.

So technically this blog also costed me those 2.

I can't afford to read on here ....

Edit: Well add 2 x uCurrent

/Bingo

david77 · « **Reply #30 on:** April 04, 2012, 07:15:04 pm »

Luckily I can control myself most of the time

.

Just a couple of old multimeters (they were cheap) and the BK Precision 2709 (nice meter but damn annoying beeping!).
Then a basic ESD setup for the workshop, better lighting, basic SMD tools & a few other tools, then the AVR-ISP II.

Oh well, I need my toys, still a big kid I suppose

.

Afrotechmods · « **Reply #31 on:** April 04, 2012, 10:04:00 pm »

Agilent got my money for a 2000-X series because of Dave. I think he should have gotten a cut of that!

Bored@Work · « **Reply #32 on:** April 04, 2012, 10:59:20 pm »

Quote from: Afrotechmods on April 04, 2012, 10:04:00 pm

Agilent got my money for a 2000-X series because of Dave. I think he should have gotten a cut of that!

He got a DSO.

rsjsouza · « **Reply #33 on:** April 05, 2012, 06:24:37 pm »

I found the blog when I was shopping for a DMM, therefore it made me spend more money that I would have originally spent, as it highlighted features/weaknesses that never bothered me...

It also surely opened several possibilities: a Rigol DS1052E, a BK Precision 879B, a uCurrent, fancy DMM probes (I am a big fan of alligator clips only)... Not only that but the blog also revamped old, long forgotten electronics interests...

Therefore I count these last two as money to be spent (a MBA guy would say "invested").

steve_w · « **Reply #34 on:** April 06, 2012, 04:13:03 am »

Its not what it cost me it's what it saved me, it saved my sanity by introducing me to diptrace; eagle was sending me around the twist, showed me how to buy smarter saved me from some mistakes by good equipment reviews. Introduced me to lots of good people who have helped me learn new things especially diptrace.

I say keep up the good work Dave.

regards

Steve W

vk6zgo · « **Reply #35 on:** April 06, 2012, 11:24:50 am »

Zilch!

Rerouter · « **Reply #36 on:** April 06, 2012, 11:32:12 am »

- $22,782.60

from a few of the little tid bits the blog introduced me to, i figured out how to repair some of beautiful pieces of test gear and control electronics, the dollar value is the amount i have made from selling things that were handed to me broken and repaired myself

dave, your making some of us richer rather than poorer

MBY · « **Reply #37 on:** April 06, 2012, 02:55:10 pm »

I have bought at least four things inspired by the blog or the forum:

Thanks to Dave:
* Atten 858D+ hot air rework station, works really well
* BK Precision 2709B, winner of the $100 DMM shootout. I really like it, but I'm a little bit unhappy about the calibration. Lacking duty cycle meas and autorange to 660 mV-range is a real bummer, but I can still recommend it.
Thanks to the forum:
* Model 2005 precision power source (hasn't arrived from the US yet)
* Pentaref

I also have made several attempts to buy the µCurrent, but I'm always too late.

And the Hakko FX-??? solder station is hard to get by here in Sweden to a decent price.

+ hours and hours of video-watching, of course!

Edit: I'm also trying to adopt KiCAD instead of Eagle, but curiously that transition accidentally started a few days _before_ KiCAD was mentioned in a Daves video blog.

steve_w · « **Reply #38 on:** April 07, 2012, 01:21:54 am »

Hey,

MBY I used to use eagle but tried diptrace, its worth a try.

regards

SW

MBY · « **Reply #39 on:** April 07, 2012, 09:53:50 am »

Yes, I may try out Diptrace some rainy day but I prefer open source. KiCAD runs on Linux and has no limitations (number of pins, commercial boards, etc), and I'm using Linux.

meffe · « **Reply #40 on:** April 07, 2012, 11:54:54 am »

So far, one µCurrent, and a pocket DMM - amprobe, it works when you don't want to lug a bench DMM around

I can not say that other purchases are thanks to Dave.
It has also cost me many hours of watching videos.

Ed.Kloonk · « **Reply #41 on:** April 07, 2012, 12:39:38 pm »

Well I might be the only one who can say the blog has -saved- me money!

Whenever my brother emails and asks if he can borrow my DMM, I just direct him to one of Dave's classic meter destruction videos and keep my meter to myself.

Since I adopted the new approach, I no longer get back a charred meter that's for sure. Thanks Dave!

SeanB · « **Reply #42 on:** April 08, 2012, 06:50:12 am »

I want a new scope............

Either that or a new vacuum pump, decisions are so hard. Buy online or via RS ( probably online, but RS has been doing some price reductions recently) or buy local ( really limited options there).

Kibi · « **Reply #43 on:** April 08, 2012, 01:53:59 pm »

Quote from: SeanB on April 08, 2012, 06:50:12 am

I want a new scope............
or buy local ( really limited options there).

Not as limited as Zimbabwe

SeanB · « **Reply #44 on:** April 08, 2012, 02:06:12 pm »

Shoot, but at least you can buy direct in US dollars............ Zimdollars are worth more as scrap paper than as currency, I found it hard to get them from Zimbabweans, they are literally worthless. I sent some to the USA, the postage cost more than the 5 million dollar notes did.

Zim was the only country where nobody stole cash, you would need the truckload you stole to buy fuel for the truck.

Kibi · « **Reply #45 on:** April 08, 2012, 05:42:27 pm »

How about this one then.

I had a 100 Trillion dollar note around somewhere, but I can't find it. In it's heyday, it could buy you some milk and perhaps some bread.

So, back on topic, Dave has cost me many Hundreds of Trillions of dollars

free_electron · « **Reply #46 on:** April 08, 2012, 05:48:40 pm »

Just a U1253B. All the other stuff i already had

. I 'recirculate' my machines'. Because of where i live and work i have reasonably easy access to test equipment. Most of my machines stay 3 to 4 years after which i get access to a 'newer version' and i shove the older one's on ebay.
The money is recycled to buy missing bits i don't have yet.

SeanB · « **Reply #47 on:** April 08, 2012, 07:04:30 pm »

Quote from: Kibi on April 08, 2012, 05:42:27 pm

How about this one then.

I had a 100 Trillion dollar note around somewhere, but I can't find it. In it's heyday, it could buy you some milk and perhaps some bread.

So, back on topic, Dave has cost me many Hundreds of Trillions of dollars

Thanks, nice to see a lovely sample. So you have spent the same as the US debt on your hobby then.

McMonster · « **Reply #48 on:** April 09, 2012, 03:42:31 am »

This won't beat hungarian pengo, they had a note of 1*10^18 pengo and they later recalculated this to their new currency, the forint, with 1*10^27 pengo equaling 1 forint.

Simon · « **Reply #49 on:** April 09, 2012, 07:38:57 am »

Well I decided I wanted a digital scope and looked on ebay and found the Rigol 1052E and thought, hm good price, is it a good scope and so ran a google search on the model and came across daves site and video some months after the forum began and was small. I thought well he looks like he knows what he is talking about and likes it so I'll get it (so Dave rigol owe you for at least one sale). I then got an amprobe AM220 meter as it was all I could afford in the way of a decent and safe meter. After that as a consequence of my ongoing interest I spent £50 on a second hand 3-15V 25A power supply that I thin was a right bargain although I already had a 13.8V 5A fixed power supply I picked up at a car boot for £3.

I've not spent all I would want but I feel that my money was all spent wisely and all the gear is useful and not purely for show


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Author Topic: How much has EEVblog cost you? (Read 29192 times)

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