Author Topic: How thievable are oscilloscopes?  (Read 6345 times)

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Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #25 on: July 09, 2022, 08:53:29 pm »
Yes, you'll own nothing and you'll be happy. =)
 
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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #26 on: July 09, 2022, 08:57:25 pm »
nail varnish remover?
 
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Online tggzzz

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #27 on: July 09, 2022, 09:25:08 pm »
My school chemical lab had sulfuric acid, but intentionally diluted to a point you had to be wanting to do harm to do harm with it.

My school's wasn't. Fun when poured over sugar. Must try that with the sulphuric acid drain cleaner I bought a decade or two ago, in B&Q.

We were also given Na and K to play with observe the different relative reactivity with water. I keep my Na in a metal  cupboard, together with potassium permanganate sodium chlorate and powdered Mg. The cupboard is is my asbestos and cement garage.

We were warned that, when disposing of KCN down the sink, to make sure we didn't allow any acid down the drain.

Yes, we did watch Hg swirl around Petri dishes. Hypnotic.

Yes I did stink my parent's kitchen out with H2S.

They did keep the radioactive sources locked up. Shame my friend's fob watch was noticeably more intense (and was sent to Harwell!).

For the more interesting stuff told in a delightfully droll style, see https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/things-i-wont-work-with Examples: chlorine triflouride ("Sand won't save you this time"), FOOF (yes, di-oxygen di-flouride), hexamethylenetetramine which you make more stable by mixing it with TNT ("there are six nitrogens and six nitro groups, the first assumption must be that these are all bonded to each other. I mean, come on, leaving the nitro groups attached to the carbons is for wimps. So that means that someone, somewhere, has perversely made a poly-N-nitro cage compound, as if they'd been dared to cram the most bond energy into the smallest space.")

I don't see how kids can have fun in school science lessons anymore.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2022, 09:42:23 pm by tggzzz »
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Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #28 on: July 10, 2022, 12:35:25 am »
About 23 years ago I worked for a company that went from the typical battleship-sized 7000 and 11000 series Tektronix mainframes to the TDS lunchpail style scopes.

Yes, they started disappearing.

So it doesn't matter where or when or who, stuff will disappear.
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 
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Offline FaringdonTopic starter

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #29 on: July 10, 2022, 01:32:58 pm »
Thanks,
Shame Airtags are £29
https://www.apple.com/uk/airtag/

...wish there was some other cheaper thing, like maybe an NFC  tag i wonder....even though you only detect it if you "scan" it
Like an RFID tag you get on jars of coffee insupermarkets

https://www.rfidshop.com/30mm-inlay-tag-mifare-ultralightnfc-ev1-1255-p.asp

The readers cost a fortune though.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2022, 01:38:07 pm by Faringdon »
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Offline AndyBeez

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #30 on: July 10, 2022, 02:07:01 pm »
Hi,
Just taken over a workspace in London. Wondering whether to leave the Rigol 40MHz (£90 many years ago) scope in there or not?
I deffo wont leave my laptop in there.
Its (workspace) got a Yale lock.....and main door security could be "tailgated".
Provious users may have got duplicate keys done.
Does your Rigol have a carry handle? If yes... there's your answer.

Risk assesement 101 - if the building is not yours, the locks are not yours and the 'security' guards are on upto minimum wage, consider the space unsecure. Even if if they boast 24hour CCTV coverage, valuables will walk.

I once worked in a secure bank location somewhere in London where, we could not bring cameras onsite for security considerations. Phones were locked in lockers. Yet, expensive items disappeared off desks overnight. Would you believe it, but the cheapest is best contact cleaning company was staffed with light fingered illegal migrants.

Carry home or insure accordingly.

Edit: I should add, even if you do manage to track down a stolen item to the local cash converters store, it is highly unlikely the police will have any interest in investigating.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2022, 02:16:18 pm by AndyBeez »
 
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Offline PlainName

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #31 on: July 10, 2022, 02:11:15 pm »
There are small GPS trackers that respond to SMS (or can periodically send position to a server or your phone) which are intended for cars and the like. Main problem is power, but you should be able to arrange for a battery to be recharged whenever the scope is powered. The trackers typically have a USB input, so if the scope has USB it's just a case of plugging it in.

Not vouching for this one, and it is 12V, but it's typical of what's out there:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09MKL8NZJ
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #32 on: July 10, 2022, 02:23:29 pm »
Edit: I should add, even if you do manage to track down a stolen item to the local cash converters store, it is highly unlikely the police will have any interest in investigating.

This reminds me of an incident with my ex mother in law. My nephew’s bike was stolen and ended up in a cash converters. This was about 15 years ago before they gave a crap about doing ID checks. Phoned police and they did nothing so she just walked in there and took it. Staff called the police who didn’t do anything either  :-DD
 
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Online ebastler

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #33 on: July 10, 2022, 02:33:50 pm »
Would you believe it, but the cheapest is best contact cleaning company was staffed with light fingered illegal migrants.

I didn't realize that contact cleaning was such a significant business that it can keep a specialized company afloat. Not surprised that they pay minumim wage or even less. I usually do my own contact cleaning, preferably using KONTAKT WL solvent.

 ;)
 
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Offline xrunner

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #34 on: July 10, 2022, 02:36:29 pm »

So it doesn't matter where or when or who, stuff will disappear.

The house next to me had an estate sale a few years ago. There was an old planter in the front yard which wasn't specifically for sale. It had been there as long as I can remember when I knew the man there who passed away. The planter had three rusted legs and the top part was old fiberglass, which was so old it had holes in it. I think their plan was to throw it away - worthless  junk.

However, over the night on the weekend of the estate sale it was gone in the morning. I asked the daughters who bought that old POS.  :-DD

They said somebody stole it over the night, probably somebody who had visited the sale.

And the OP asks if an oscilloscope could be stolen?  :-//
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 
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Offline armandine2

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #35 on: July 10, 2022, 02:43:16 pm »
Your scope could be stolen from your workplace or your lodgings, of course.

I lived for a while, as a student in the 90s, in shared accommodation [terraced house] - The house was burgled by someone (with small hands) gaining entry from the loft space which was shared by the other houses on that side of the street. I had my Fluke 23 dmm stolen, but my Hung Chang 20MHz scope was left behind. It did have (and still does, as a reminder) a small set of grubby finger prints on one side, where it was lifted from its cardboard box storage.

Losing tools by theft has been fairly common in my experience of lodging and working in northern England.
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught - Hunter S Thompson
 
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Offline Zenith

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #36 on: July 10, 2022, 02:57:47 pm »
If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.

You could buy a similar scope and keep it at home, just in case, and leave this one at work. Then if this one was nicked, or just let out the magic smoke one day,
you'd have avoided a lot of carting it back and forth, and have a spare at hand. I assume you could find a suitable scope for about £100.
 
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Offline eugene

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #37 on: July 10, 2022, 03:04:44 pm »
Paint it pink and apply Hello Kitty stickers so that nobody will want it.
90% of quoted statistics are fictional
 
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Offline m98

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #38 on: July 10, 2022, 03:23:29 pm »
Wait, so you have rented a "workspace" and don't have like a door to lock or something? I wouldn't really be worried about break-ins inside of an office building.
 
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Online ebastler

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #39 on: July 10, 2022, 03:38:45 pm »
Wait, so you have rented a "workspace" and don't have like a door to lock or something? I wouldn't really be worried about break-ins inside of an office building.

Well, the original post is not that long... If you keep reading, you will get to the "Yale lock", "duplicate keys" and "tailgating through main security" part eventually.  ::)
 
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Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #40 on: July 10, 2022, 04:16:47 pm »
If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #41 on: July 10, 2022, 04:27:43 pm »
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

Little effort, but you might fall foul of anti-mantrap legislation. It doesn't require much imagination to realise that such a device could have lethal consequences if activated in a confined space where someone, possibly an innocent bystander, would have breathing problems, or a closed vehicle where it could easily cause a fatal crash, again possibly involving innocent bystanders. Such smoke devices used to be used for "cash in transit" containers but have been replaced by dye packs, probably for exactly such reasons.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 
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Offline pcprogrammer

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #42 on: July 10, 2022, 04:30:17 pm »
If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

All you need is a battery, and old computer case, a smoke bomb, a bit of electronics with a tilt switch. Or a bit more fancy use a system shops are using for anti theft, where the alarm goes off when you walk out of the door through those special gates.

Edit: Cerebus beat me to the punch and took a bit of the fun out of it :(

Better yet use a dye pack like the banks use and make it go off when the perpetrator walks out the door :-DD

Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #43 on: July 10, 2022, 04:31:08 pm »
If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables

Yeah, one day in the 90s I came back to my shitty apartment just as someone had broken in, in broad daylight. He was in the process of grabbing my Commodore 1581 disk drive in its box but got distracted trying on all my pants and I guess once he heard the door he bolted out of there, forgetting the large-ish box.

But a 1581 in the '90s was probably worth 25$. But it was in its box in great condition.

On the minus side he did take off with my high-end Sony Walkman. On the plus side, he left his old pants in my bedroom.
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #44 on: July 10, 2022, 04:31:28 pm »
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Kensington style locks. A lot of more modern test gear has the slot designed for one of these to be fitted to. Fairly effective against casual opportunistic theft, but like most theft deterrence not effective against a determined, prepared, professional thief.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 
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Offline PlainName

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #45 on: July 10, 2022, 04:47:54 pm »
If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

https://www.smokecloak.co.uk/

Had one. Two, actually. Fitted one to my office when I was building it and for the test firing I stood just inside the open office door. Within seconds I could see a thing and had to grope to the consumer unit and flick the breaker off blind.

In the end I decided not to use one, but only because it's a constant source of heat and there is far too much wood around to be comfortable. Same for the garage - amazingly effective but not really advisable to have a heat source around petrol.
 
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Offline AndyBeez

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #46 on: July 10, 2022, 04:49:19 pm »

I didn't realize that contact cleaning was such a significant business that it can keep a specialized company afloat. Not surprised that they pay minumim wage or even less. I usually do my own contact cleaning, preferably using KONTAKT WL solvent.

 ;)
I really need a bigger mobile device screen.

Seriously, these cleaners had been trafficked from Nigeria on tourist visas. It was in their own self interest to take as much as they could before the UK border agency sent them packing. The trusted cleaning company had contracts right across London.

ContRact cleaners, security and catering are a significant point of failure in any physical (or cyber) defence yet, are barely mentioned in a security risk assesement. There is a notion that these guys are paid so little that if caught stealing, they cannot afford to be sacked. So they won't.  They are also too stupid to know what is valuable. I once came across a Latvian cleaner who was doing an MA in space based avionics. Not the only smart student with a Henry vac out there.

A problem too with popup hot desk office rentals. You have zero idea of anyone else who has access to the building at any time. BYOD but be prepared to take it home.
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #47 on: July 10, 2022, 05:07:51 pm »
Totally agree with that. We had some cleaners steal laptops a few years back. Of course we fired the cleaning company instantly and hired another one. Same fucking cleaners turned up  :palm:

Cleaners are now fully salaried background checked.
 

Online Zero999

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #48 on: July 10, 2022, 05:26:33 pm »
It depends on the oscilloscope, whether those who know the value and are of a dishonest disposition see the oscilloscope and think they can take it, without getting caught.

A new security manager where I work stated we must start to start locking the storeroom because equipment might get stolen. We have some very expensive pressure calibration equipment, which cost arount 20k each. I said it's unlikely anything will get stolen because it hasn't happened in the company's 70 year history and few people who are aware of the value of the instruments are the type to steal them. I told her, if we left a piece of test equipment worth 20k at the local shopping centre, with a £200 bike next to it, both unlocked, the bike would get stolen, not the instrument. The value of the bike would be obvious to anyone, but not the test equipment which is very niche.
 

Online tggzzz

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Re: How thievable are oscilloscopes?
« Reply #49 on: July 10, 2022, 05:59:38 pm »
It depends on the oscilloscope, whether those who know the value and are of a dishonest disposition see the oscilloscope and think they can take it, without getting caught.

A new security manager where I work stated we must start to start locking the storeroom because equipment might get stolen. We have some very expensive pressure calibration equipment, which cost arount 20k each. I said it's unlikely anything will get stolen because it hasn't happened in the company's 70 year history and few people who are aware of the value of the instruments are the type to steal them. I told her, if we left a piece of test equipment worth 20k at the local shopping centre, with a £200 bike next to it, both unlocked, the bike would get stolen, not the instrument. The value of the bike would be obvious to anyone, but not the test equipment which is very niche.

Famously when Bill Hewlett found a store room locked, he used bolt cutters and left a note requesting that it not be locked in future.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 


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