What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[CaptainBucko]

Apparently these sponges are better than the ones mentioned above: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007520141253.html according to a review I saw recently they are a bit more firm and soak up more, I might get them to compare, as I also have the ones mentioned.

They look identical, but yes my ones get chopped up a bit when you mash them over through hole joints, but those snipped leads can be pretty sharp.

Is this the same as the "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser"?

I don't think so. Not as dense.

[PlainName]

Is this the same as the "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser"?

Ooh! Not seen that before but could definitely find a use for it.

But, no, I doubt if it's even similar. The sponges work by having really tiny holes that act as capillaries and just suck up anything wet that they contact. No scrubbing involved. And the reverse works too: load them with a seemingly a gallon of IPA and splosh it all over your dirty bits.

[vk6zgo]

Is this the same as the "Mr. Clean Magic Eraser"?

Ooh! Not seen that before but could definitely find a use for it.

But, no, I doubt if it's even similar. The sponges work by having really tiny holes that act as capillaries and just suck up anything wet that they contact. No scrubbing involved. And the reverse works too: load them with a seemingly a gallon of IPA and splosh it all over your dirty bits.

Wouldn't that sting?

[woody]

A BMO-CASE for my Magnova scope. Very nice, big and sturdy.

[PlainName]

Wouldn't that sting?

No pain, no gain 

[Addicted2AnalogTek]

Most notably, I impulse bought that Tektronix 577 D2 option 10 with the "busted screen" that came up for auction. There was one listing photo, and it wasn't the greatest resolution, so I'll just see what condition it arrives in.  Maybe it's the implosion shield that is cracked, maybe it needs a transplant display unit, or maybe it turns out to be parts.

[neverendingstudent]

Just received a Fluke 341A I found on eBay for ~$300, parts / repair status but shown able to power on.

The seller PACKED IT WITH PACKING PEANUTS.  A couple wraps of bubble wrap and filled the box with packing peanuts - probably one of the worst ways to ship an ESD sensitive device, not to mention how ineffective packing peanuts are at keeping something from getting damaged in shipping, which happened.

Arg.

Well, it still goes into the repair queue.  If I'm more lucky than good, maybe I can restore it to working order.

[deadlylover]

Won an auction for a Topcon SR-3 spectroradiometer, shipping was just as much as the item oof. Ended up being ~USD210 shipped we'll see if it works haha.

I don't know what I'd do if my Minolta spectro died on me so this'll serve as backup. Ughhh finding documentation is a pain for the Topcon, I'll have to wing it or try and guess the serial commands from a newer model's manual. That's one thing I like about Konica Minolta, their documentation/software is much more available.

I recently scored an Eizo monitor that has direct hardware calibration and a built in colorimeter, so the spectros will be used for the built-in sensor correlation. Now I should be able to watch colour accurate EEVblog. 

There's volt nuts, time nuts...will I eventually be a lamp nut?

[geralds]

A WEP 948 Desoldering Station (seems to be the same as the Yihua 948, but in blue/grey). Will need to check the PS mods to increase the suction (will revert on the respective other, older thread). Hope this speeds up cap replacements!

[grumpydoc]

not to mention how ineffective packing peanuts are at keeping something from getting damaged in shipping, which happened.

The irritating thing is that it takes just one simple, small change to turn loose packing peanuts from a completely useless method for protecting heavy but delicate items in transit into one which is quite good.

Pack the peanuts into (tied) plastic bags beforehand, then pack the bags around the item - anything from 2-8 should do depending on the size of box, item and bags.

Stops the peanuts "flowing" around the item leaving it unprotected.

[edavid]

Just received a Fluke 341A I found on eBay for ~$300, parts / repair status but shown able to power on.

The seller PACKED IT WITH PACKING PEANUTS.  A couple wraps of bubble wrap and filled the box with packing peanuts - probably one of the worst ways to ship an ESD sensitive device, not to mention how ineffective packing peanuts are at keeping something from getting damaged in shipping, which happened.

I hate packing peanuts also, but why do you think it's ESD sensitive?

[SiliconWizard]

Got a few boards with the CH32L103 and RP2350B. Should be interesting.

[pcprogrammer]

Got a few boards with the CH32L103 and RP2350B. Should be interesting.

For what I understood from the RP2350 is that one can only use 2 of the same cores of the 4 cores available at the same time. Either you run the chip ARM based or Risk-V based. Seems a bit like a waste of die space to me. They could have made two separate versions and used the freed up die space for flash or more RAM in my opinion.

[pcprogrammer]

Just received a Fluke 341A I found on eBay for ~$300, parts / repair status but shown able to power on.

The seller PACKED IT WITH PACKING PEANUTS.  A couple wraps of bubble wrap and filled the box with packing peanuts - probably one of the worst ways to ship an ESD sensitive device, not to mention how ineffective packing peanuts are at keeping something from getting damaged in shipping, which happened.

I hate packing peanuts also, but why do you think it's ESD sensitive?

If only Amazon had used some to fill up the big box they shipped 2 12V SLA batteries in, that I ordered a while back. Fortunately only the box was damaged and not the housings of the batteries. Of one of them the terminals were bend a bit. The box offered space for at least 5 of these batteries. 

[DiTBho]

I wanted to buy an old yellow paper Application Note by Motorola
but the seller on eBay was asking
+ 35 euros for the piece of paper
+ 25 euros for shipping
= on the total of which I would also have to pay importing fees

so I kindly asked if it was possible to lower the price
As *if* the price is always what one is willing to pay
*then* for sure I am not willing to pay 60 euro + importing fees for a piece of yellow paper.
20 USD shipped, Maybe!

- "go to your favorite grocery store or department store and ask them can you reduce the price" - he/she said

- "sure! I will! At least my favorite grocery store they use their brains more!
they know that otherwise the goods remain on the shelves gathering dust and deteriorating.
Listen, dude ...
... I found the same paper on Archive dot org, so I can spend my money better
I don't have a printer with me because I'm on a business trip and I hate using the client's printer to print personal things
but I can easily go to a copy shop and with less than 2 euros you can print the entire article,
less than 20 pages, on the best possible paper

I think you missed your chance to do good business
and a good deed with those who are still willing to invest their time and resources
to keep the memory of the hardware (m68k) that is now deprecated" - I pointed out.

But he/she replied - "sure, that's why you pass on certain items at the grocery store when you think it's to high"


-

In the end: 1.45 euro.
for 19 pages printed + an envelope to store them in the binder

Happy 

[SiliconWizard]

Got a few boards with the CH32L103 and RP2350B. Should be interesting.

For what I understood from the RP2350 is that one can only use 2 of the same cores of the 4 cores available at the same time. Either you run the chip ARM based or Risk-V based. Seems a bit like a waste of die space to me. They could have made two separate versions and used the freed up die space for flash or more RAM in my opinion.

No, you can actually run one of each. But yes, only 2 cores total. Which is already pretty cool. They have doubled the RAM with 520KB, that's already pretty generous. The area for the cores themselves on the die is probably very small compared to the RAM, so they weren't wasting much of anything and that's a way to get started with RISC-V, and they took advantage of this project to design a pretty good RISC-V core (it's in-house designed).

The B version has 48 GPIOs vs only 30 for the A and previous RP2040. The only downside really is the packages IMO. A 80-pin QFN for 48 GPIOs? WTF?

[rsjsouza]

I wanted to buy an old yellow paper Application Note by Motorola
but the seller on eBay was asking
+ 35 euros for the piece of paper
+ 25 euros for shipping
= on the total of which I would also have to pay importing fees

I have seen those scenarios way too often, especially with older things slapped with the term "vintage". Expectations and reality are so far apart that even hard evidence does not mitigate the sliver of a chance of selling your product to an unadvised buyer.

[Kjelt]

I have seen those scenarios way too often, especially with older things slapped with the term "vintage". Expectations and reality are so far apart that even hard evidence does not mitigate the sliver of a chance of selling your product to an unadvised buyer.

Had the same issue with Omron servo's I found brand new in box on a hardware scrap yard. Paid €15 a piece for them (new they were $650).

Then wanted to buy the drivers that match. New unobtanium, second hand plenty from chinese industrial scrapyards (taken from written off machines).
They only ask $500 a piece for them (new they were $650 as the servo). I tried to negotiate but they are asking these prices because they think some wealthy western company wants them to replace a broken one in a 6 figure machine.

Sad because I tried 4 different brands of different servo drivers but it just does not match....
I explained I was a hobby-ist even tried $200 a piece which I think is more than fair... nothing... five years later they are still trying to sell them 

Oh yes I got one seller that sold me 5 pieces for $150/pc, I was very happy till I received the package and the drivers did not work.
They had put stickers over the original: the original power was 100W the sticker says 200W.
The driver measures that the servo is drawing too much current and stops immediately. I sent it back even had to pay the shipping myself: scam artists!.

[RAPo]

When I started mathematics in 1981, I bought a linex super 30m ruler.
It worked perfectly until today when I used it as a shoehorn.

Immediately bought a new one. I think it will outlive me ;-)

[neverendingstudent]

Just received a Fluke 341A I found on eBay for ~$300, parts / repair status but shown able to power on.

The seller PACKED IT WITH PACKING PEANUTS.  A couple wraps of bubble wrap and filled the box with packing peanuts - probably one of the worst ways to ship an ESD sensitive device, not to mention how ineffective packing peanuts are at keeping something from getting damaged in shipping, which happened.

I hate packing peanuts also, but why do you think it's ESD sensitive?

It's a precision voltage reference - I generally consider those to be sensitive devices which should not be subjected to physical / thermal / electrical extremes.  For voltage references specifically, when something can be accurate down to 10uV, I'm going to presume it should not be exposed to static conditions on general principles.  Same as when I open up the voltage ref shielded areas of 6.5 digit meters and up.

[thm_w]

It's a precision voltage reference - I generally consider those to be sensitive devices which should not be subjected to physical / thermal / electrical extremes.  For voltage references specifically, when something can be accurate down to 10uV, I'm going to presume it should not be exposed to static conditions on general principles.  Same as when I open up the voltage ref shielded areas of 6.5 digit meters and up.

Its an enclosed metal instrument, wrapped in bubble wrap, shouldn't be an issue as the packing peanuts aren't even able to make contact with the output connectors. https://www.kevinchant.com/uploads/7/1/0/8/7108231/fluke_341a_dc_voltage_calibrators_sm.pdf

Opening and poking around inside the board of a 6.5 digit meter is a different story.

[beanflying]

Gear packed just in Peanuts gets you this related  issue. I did repair this and the other handle which was cracked.


edit and kind of related. These just turned up in the mail this morning. 4 obviously salvaged Eproms and inside tubes and bag 6 Memory IC's for my 3458A repair, both from AliX and different sellers. The eproms apart from a few tweaked pins were fine ($1.73 AUD each with 'free post' and came blanked) and one of the 6 nicely packed ones was DOA at least according to my shiny new programmer. The moral here is 'luck plays a part'

[ledtester]

Had to use up some Aliexpress coins and I found these led filaments for 85% off with coins...

[armandine2]

...ATX power supply tester - picked one up last Thursday, but today I got it to test something.

..not so sure if cleaning the pcb helped to bring my "DUT" back to life - as it didn't appear to work when it was in its enclosure 

..anyhow, have watched plenty of ATX power supply videos now.

[RAPo]

An uberlogger.