What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[faraday]

LeoBodnar 30ps pulse generator

[Stray Electron]

  I went to an estate sale this past weekend and picked up a Craftsman "Professional" multimeter along with the optional current clamp, the current divider and a plugin AC voltage tester and with all of the leads and owner's manuals and in the cloth zippered Craftsman case. The meter is model number 81079 and it appears to be a rebadged Extech 470.  The meter only seems to be a technician grade meter but it does have a Hold feature, relative mode and is back lit and measures frequency and capacitance and has an IR temperature sensor and also a type K temperature sensor along with all of the usual electrical measurements.  It's not the most sophisticated meter in the world but this does look like a nice set of gear for working on air conditioning systems and other around the house repairs. I think that this all dates from about 2007 but everything is very clean and appears to be almost new.  The best part is that I only paid $20 for all of it and with some specialized air conditioning tools thrown in.

  The Extech brand is pretty rare in the US and this is only the second meter that I've ever seen that was made by them. Does anyone have any experience with the Extech 470?  The manuals for both the Craftsman 81079 and the Extech 470 are online but they don't really tell you much.

  Does anyone know what type fuses these use?  The manual says 20 amp, 250 volt and 500Ma, 250 volt but the manual only gives the Extech part number and not a standard part number.  I'd like to go ahead and grab some spares but not from Extech!

[PartialDischarge]

SMD Stencil printer for small boards from Multi-CB

[BennoG]

HP 6035A not working according the seller.

[Black Phoenix]

It was not bought today but it was upgraded today:

Dell Optiplex 3070 MFF and a Dell Latitude 5400.

Both were my wife's older work workstation and laptop - They replace them to HP equipment to every one at the company with the chance for the respective workers to play a symbolic amount (100HKD per each equipment). Today I upgraded the both to 2x16GB DDR4 and 512SSD M.2, with an extra 2TB platter 2.5" for extra storage.

[Jay_Diddy_B]

HP 6035A not working according the seller.

Hopefully it works, but you can have a look at:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp6035a-500v-5a-1kw-power-supply-repair/msg697835/#msg697835

I show a repair that I did on my unit.

Jay_Diddy_B

[BennoG]

HP 6035A not working according the seller.

Hopefully it works, but you can have a look at:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp6035a-500v-5a-1kw-power-supply-repair/msg697835/#msg697835

I show a repair that I did on my unit.

I already looked at it and the same 2 caps had leaked, it was repaired by someone but they did not neutralize the corrosion so it corroded more.
Dismantling the unit at the moment.

Benno

[Smoky]

I've been collecting SMA parts for future projects. I bought these 50 Ohm terminators on Ebay recently. They are female terminators made by Omni Spectra sometime in the 1980's?

The seller was asking $19.99 for 18 terminators so I offered $15 and they accepted. They are rated to 18 GHz and made of gold plated stainless

     

[Smoky]

I also bought these three SMA Tees on Ebay. They are made by SV Microwave and are gold plated stainless. Part number is SV 2995-6001.

The attached drawing for this part number dates back to 1967. I paid $6 each plus shipping.



Mouser has 14 of these SV Microwave tees in stock at $167 a piece

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Amphenol-SV-Microwave/2995-6001?qs=VDzqBFPIPbiqpcs1snpFyQ%3D%3D

[grumpydoc]

A PC Engines apu2e4 from ebay.de, a couple of cases from LinITX while they still have stock and an AW7916-NPD together with AW7915-NP1 to put together a 5G/WiFi gateway.

A pity that the APU series is now EoL, they are getting a bit underpowered these days (quad 1.4GHz) but still more than powerful enough for router/firewall/dedicated applications and most of the alternatives, though nice enough in themselves, are larger or more power hungry.

Annoyingly the AW7916-NPD is out of stock so I'm going to have to wait for that.

[dzwer]

A small and cute DC-DC module Riden RK6006-BT: https://www.banggood.com/RIDEN-RK6006-or-RK6006-BT-60V-6A-4-Digit-Communication-360W-Adjustable-Digital-DC-to-DC-Step-Down-Voltage-Bench-Power-Supply-Buck-Converter-p-1992304.html
I've printed a temporary small case for it from Printables.
Waiting for 2 more to arrive and to combine them in one box.

[krish2487]

A (new to me) Metcal Mx5200 with 2 stands and a handpiece, no tips though..
The handpiece and the stands are showing their age but the psu looks in rather decent shape.. it powers on and shows the ground fault, since I used a 2 pin plug..
I also have a replacement grip and 3 chisel tips on their way.. :-)

I have the younger cousin brother ( Thermaltronics tmt2000s ) with me already.. and i thought that was well built... 
The Metcal is an absolute unit!!

PS: does anyone have any ideas on how I can bypass this ground fault issue ?? I have afaik one two pin outlets in the apartment.. 

[thm_w]

I also have a replacement grip and 3 chisel tips on their way.. :-)

It will be like new once you replace the grip.

PS: does anyone have any ideas on how I can bypass this ground fault issue ?? I have afaik one two pin outlets in the apartment.. 

There were a few threads, can't find the recent one, I think if you short N to E (with a special cable at the station ONLY), it might be enough. Do you not have access to any earth points at all?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/what-metcal/msg340565/#msg340565

[krish2487]

There were a few threads, can't find the recent one, I think if you short N to E (with a special cable at the station ONLY), it might be enough. Do you not have access to any earth points at all?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/what-metcal/msg340565/#msg340565

Not as far as I can see, I will double check again. Its a very very old apartment and line and neutral are all I see here... 

So if I understand it correctly, it should as simple as opening up the station, shorting the Neutral and Earth inside and powering it up?

[deadlylover]

Xtar VX4 charger, I use a lot of NiMh and li-ion cells so it's very convenient to have the one charger that can auto detect chemistry. Downside is because of the auto detect it also selects the charge current by itself, we'll see how annoying that gets...

[pdenisowski]

I bought a DVB-T2 set-top box even though I live thousands of kilometers away from the nearest DVB-T2 station

[BBBbbb]

Xtar VX4 charger, I use a lot of NiMh and li-ion cells so it's very convenient to have the one charger that can auto detect chemistry. Downside is because of the auto detect it also selects the charge current by itself, we'll see how annoying that gets...

It throws errors for individual cells during charging for no valid reason, reinserting cells fixes it. Annoying.

[thm_w]

Not as far as I can see, I will double check again. Its a very very old apartment and line and neutral are all I see here... 

So if I understand it correctly, it should as simple as opening up the station, shorting the Neutral and Earth inside and powering it up?

I would not open the station, I would build a very clearly marked cable or pass through adapter, that takes L and N in and outputs L and N shorted to E. You can just cut up a normal power cable to do this.

[Oldtestgear]

Another 3458a, this one from eBay UK & sold as faulty. I must stop messing around on eBay buying old, broken, stuff. I will post details of my repair attempts when it arrives.

Phil

[krish2487]

I would not open the station, I would build a very clearly marked cable or pass through adapter, that takes L and N in and outputs L and N shorted to E. You can just cut up a normal power cable to do this.

I did manage to find earthed outlets in the kitchen.. and tested with the appropriate power cable.. and the gnd fault is now replaced with open error.. which makes sense since there are no tips ( arriving tomorrow :-D ) ... and I can hear the relay click and switch between the two outputs when the button is pressed..
so fingers crossed about the tips and that the station is working on both the outputs..
Thank you for the suggestion and inputs @thm_w I still have to find a more appropriate solution for using the station on my bench and not in the kitchen!! 

[woody]

As you found an earthed outlet in the kitchen, chances are that there is an earth point in your meter cabinet  Do yourself a favor and pull an earth wire from the meter cabinet to your desk. You're gonna use this for other stuff as well and it is a much better and safer idea than the suggestion of linking neutral to ground in your soldering station 😀

[tszaboo]

As you found an earthed outlet in the kitchen, chances are that there is an earth point in your meter cabinet  Do yourself a favor and pull an earth wire from the meter cabinet to your desk. You're gonna use this for other stuff as well and it is a much better and safer idea than the suggestion of linking neutral to ground in your soldering station 😀

Or do yourself a favor and have an electrician replace all your outlets with an earthed one.
That's what I did when I moved in. It's a days work, but at least my house is not using some cca 1960 electric code.

[krish2487]

All valid suggestions... However, its a rented accomodation and the situation with my landlord is, to put it mildly, complicated.
While I am all for getting the wiring done upto code, it might not be immediately possible or feasible.
I m looking for a temporary solution for a few months at best. As I mentioned, I do have the younger cousin brother which works just fine.
Its about 12-13 years old at this time and I have accumulated various accessories and bits for it over the years... I can continue to use it in the interim.

PS: @tszaboo 's suggestion is more appealing should I choose to go that way.. and as a matter of fact, I can probably request my landlord to get it done.

[pdenisowski]

DE9180 DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale ... not the other DRM) demo board.  I needed a receiver for DRM broadcasts and consumer DRM radios are basically unobtanium in the United States - AliExpress seems to be the only way to buy and have one shipped to the United States, but after several failed attempts at buying a Gospell radio, I bought a DRM demo board instead.

On the other hand, it's the first demo board I've ever bought that just worked right out of the box: no jumpers to set, no software to install, no poorly-written manual, etc. - just added batteries

[armandine2]

Yesterday arrived a small box / kit of 74LS logic - useful to do Ben Eater's 8 bit computer exercises.

...in his SR Latch video he uses a quad NOR 74LS02

I got the pinout from Floyd 3rd Ed Digital Fundamentals, either wrong or misread 

Will try again with this one.