What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[dunkemhigh]

Not a lot to say about this one, except "Yum!"

[cdev]

What a space-saver. Housing in a lot of places is cramped, so it makes sense to cram a bunch of instruments - and other appliances- together to me.. kinda sorta.. Another idea would be to make them modular, and have a power and maybe some other buses on the back.

This thing is just so hilarious that I just couldn’t resist.
I will only use its Bluetooth speaker functionality in my workshop.
I have no need for the DMM features as I have plenty of other better quality devices.

Surprised you didn't spring for the deluxe AN-8888S model ... or do you already have a toaster in your workshop?

Is that REAL? I guess it is.. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000343031770.html

[deadlylover]

I got some high CRI LED strips from Cutter. It's the SSK-1560ZGE-50299NIC model. CRI average of 99 with an R9 value of 94, this is probably as close as it gets to sunlight. It uses the Nichia 757 Optisolis series for applications like museums/art galleries. Very popular with the horticulture crowd too.

Hmmm fairly pleased with it, I will have to make some heatsinks and drive it harder to see how it performs. I'm actually surprised on how well the NEC quad phosphor tubes perform, they were well worth the extra money compared to normal fluorescent tubes.

I'm still searching for something that can perform as well as my headlamp modded with a Nichia E21A 4500k R9080 (in terms of tint, deviation from black body locus). A lot of stores tend to make things with the higher flux bins but they are too green which is a pain. The LED strips I got were a blend so it sort of helps alleviate the tint problem.

I reaaaally don't want to resort to tint mixing with different strips because powering them might get a little complicated compared to just slapping them on a Meanwell LED driver. But the control I could have... 

[trophosphere]

I just got my own test lead hanger from a custom laser cutting service. I decided to make my own rather than purchasing an off the shelf version as I didn't want to mount it on the wall and I had a limited amount of space on my bench with already determined screw holes. I made the entire thing in Altium. 

[blueskull]

Another retina fryer, the Laserpecker Pro 405nm laser engraver, and its auto focus elevator stand (also for my Cubiio). Also as suggested, a pair of certified 405nm, 445nm and 1064nm combo goggles.

Also backed the Laserpecker 2 galvo-based laser engraver.

So now I have a 448nm 0.8W unit (original Cubiio), a 405nm 0.5W unit (LP1 Pro), a 1064nm 20W Q-switched galvo unit (EM-Smart) and a future 450nm 5W galvo unit (LP2).

I think I'll make a video on those units soon.

BTW, don't play with lasers when you anticipate a brain fart. I just did so and blasted a large permanent black dot on my phone.

I accidentally found out AMOLED can visualize IR laser (presumably due to non linear frequency doubling effects), and I thought it was a good idea to use my phone to find the focal distance of my 8W freaking fiber diode module .

I did try to crank the output down to barely past threshold, and I shined it to a piece of black paper with no smoke, and I tried to shine it on my skin with absolutely no feel. But I guess even a few tens of mW is too much for a screen, particularly when being focused.

[jogri]

I accidentally found out AMOLED can visualize IR laser (presumably due to non linear frequency doubling effects), and I thought it was a good idea to use my phone to find the focal distance of my 8W freaking fiber diode module .

You pointed a laser directly at your phone screen? If the laser is a 808/915/980 your phone camera will pick it up (sorta). Just use a white business card as a target and look at it through your phone camera. But beware, cameras are even more sensitive to lasers than human eyes so don't put the camera directly in the beam path and just look at the reflection. Used that trick with some 20W 980 diodes, worked like a charm.

[blueskull]

You pointed a laser directly at your phone screen?

It was non collimated, so I didn't have a second thought .

Used that trick with some 20W 980 diodes, worked like a charm.

I bought an IR detector card now to prevent this from happening ever again.

[_Wim_]

Also as suggested, a pair of certified 405nm, 445nm and 1064nm combo goggles.

I think I'll make a video on those units soon.

Yes, interested!

BTW, don't play with lasers when you anticipate a brain fart. I just did so and blasted a large permanent black dot on my phone.

Mistakes are indeed quickly make. As long as it is only a phone and not an eye, your still doing ok :-)

[gamalot]

MLX90640 was delivered this morning in a Digikey's small box that I have never seen before. 

[beanflying]

MLX90640 was delivered this morning in a Digikey's small box that I have never seen before. 

Wow saving the trees finally 

[rsjsouza]

@gamalot, I am unsure what you order, but for years I have received these boxes from Digikey. Perhaps because I used to get mostly small sorts o ICs and parts, not jumbo sized things 

[IDEngineer]

@gamalot, I am unsure what you order, but for years I have received these boxes from Digikey. Perhaps because I used to get mostly small sorts o ICs and parts, not jumbo sized things

Same here. I get that exact package all the time.

DigiKey has an amazing assortment of box sizes and shapes. Recently I ordered some large diameter heat shrink tubing and instead of folding or rolling it, they shipped it in a big tubular box. Still had the complete DigiKey logo on it and everything so it wasn't a one-off.

FYI, our Production department buys large volumes from them and those shipments come in traditional larger boxes.

[Simon]

Yea, my digikey and mouser boxes have always been denser than RS and Farnell who seem to be in love with space filling with cellulose.

[msuffidy]

Orico Bluetooth 4 adapter $11.30 Canadian after tax. Purchased so I can use my computer with a microphone as a phone without having to go over to where it is hooked by wire into something.

I used the source from
https://github.com/heinervdm/nohands

which seems to only work with oss but works with the gnome desktop pretty solid by using the pulse to oss wrapper.
So I just use 'padsp hfstandalone' whereas it is configured to driver oss and  /dev/dsp

As a spin off I can now record phone conversations by using for example obs.
Here is just a random test one(for how long I leave it up):  https://web.ncf.ca/fs864/pickup/message4.mp3

[Cubdriver]

2/3 AA and full AA flat-top NiCd cells to rebuild battery packs in a Fluke 731B DC Standard and a 510A AC Standard.  Battery tab/strap welder should be here on Monday.

-Pat

[blueskull]

A cross breed of Switch and Alienware. SRSLY, I have no idea how can I need or use it in a productive way, but the form factor is just too good not to back the project (I backed it on JD.com before official release).

As I don't play emulator games that much, the detachable controllers are most likely to be sold soon online. It is the pocket computer that I'm after, a 7 inch computer with 11th gen i7 w/ Xe graphics and 20W TDP.

Spoilers alert, if you are after a handheld x86 console, don't buy this. The controller attaching mechanism is not as sturdy as a Switch, and is nowhere close to a rigidly built-in controller like the ones with GPD Win Max.

This is more of a computer with a gaming potential, not a console with a computer potential.

[BravoV]

2021 hoards !!!   

At local brick&mortar shop, saw these extincted 2.5 Volt bulbs, 50 pcs just for <5 bucks, instant impulse and hoarding nerves kicked in and bought them instantly without hesitation at all. 

Worst, after paying, kept making self excuse that maybe these will be useful someday in the future ... and was thinking hard, and suddenly the low distortion Wien Bridge Oscillator circuit that needs incand. bulb pop out, and what a relief to self that finally found a good excuse for the purchase.     

Also ordered the glow in the dark powder, green and blue colored, each vial contain 10 grams, going to use it with clear resin to paint some spots that I need to be visible while in the dark when power outage happened.

[Mortymore]

I was after those tiny light bulbs for some time until I found them. They were intended for didactic purposes.

[lukego]

CO2 fire extinguisher after seeing people talk about them here. I'm still working out how to use it safely though i.e. to manage the risk of suffocating myself and others in a CO2 cloud. This seems to be highly non-trivial. I'll look for proper training once Covid eases off a bit.

[mansaxel]

CO2 fire extinguisher after seeing people talk about them here. I'm still working out how to use it safely though i.e. to manage the risk of suffocating myself and others in a CO2 cloud. This seems to be highly non-trivial. I'll look for proper training once Covid eases off a bit.

The conflict might just arise from the fact that CO₂ extinguishers are more effective indoors than outside. I've had training on both powder and CO₂, outdoors (Did 7 months unarmed service at an airport fire brigade, as radio operator), and there is an art to putting out, say, an engine compartment fire, with CO₂.  The general idea is to just open the bonnet enough to get the nozzle in and burst away. We also had an open "fire tray" of roughly 1m square with diesel sprinklers and a propane pilot flame. When turned to 11 it was a bit of a challenge with CO₂. But I did it.

Anywhere you want to keep going after taking the fire out, CO₂ is preferable, of course, because the cleaning from having used powder is going to be more expensive than the damage from the fire. Best example is the kitchen, with electronics a good second.

[ChristofferB]

Lecroy Qvt 3001 analyzer!

This one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/303612819355

Ended up costing an arm and a leg to ship, won't be here for a month but I'm stoked!

Combined multi-channel analyzer, pulse height analyzer, pulse area analyzer, and time histogram analyzer in one neat NIM module!

It uses an oscilloscope in X/Y mode as display! It can directly interface PMT's or electron multipliers without preamp!

Oh and there's all sorts of expansion modules for CAMAC, RS232, or GPIB interfacing.

It's basically a catch-all instrument for alpha and gamma spectroscopy, XRF, time of flight mass spectrometry, cosmic ray astronomy and more!

[attach=1]

[blueskull]

The latest addition to my collection of retina fryers, this time a 915nm 140W fiber laser diode, with focused or COLLIMATED output. This is to be added to my CNC milling machine. Fast TTL pulsed power supply is still in design phase.

[Adrian_Arg.]

 Adjustable Laboratory power suply -t 0-30v 0-5a Utp3315tfl-ii, my old equipment literally blew up, it was home built.

[Mortymore]

There's a new kid in my little town.
Siglent SPD3303X-E (let's see if it will loose the 'E' one of these days)

Bought it from Welectron, and they stated on the website that wont process orders before 4th of January, but they did in my case  .
So it arrived today, despite DHL has messed up and travelled the package around the country before delivery.   

[Ground_Loop]

Just arrived today. Hopefully, I can start saying goodbye to braid and spring suckers. [attach=1]