What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[McBryce]

Bought a cheap 9710 Maynuo electronic load. Chose this one thinking I would just use a standard USB>Serial convertor... er, wrong! Why would they use a TTL level connection (with a DB9 connector that you could plug a null-modem cable into and blow it up) is beyond me. Oh well, even after buying the correct convertor cable it was still cheaper than the 9711 at the prices I can see. Oh, and the 'UK plug' was anything but.

As far as I understood, the Maynuo 9710 is meant for the internal Chinese market. Aren't you worried about its durability?

Hm. I didn't know that - bought it in the UK not from China. I'll open it up and see if there are any obvious faults. It didn't explode when I powered it up...

I bought a Maynuo 9710 about a year ago. I've compared it to a 9711 from a friend and they are identical. We could find no difference in the soldering quality, parts used or performance. I have used it extensively over the year because I had several PSU / DC/DC converter projects and it has served me very well. I'm glad I didn't spend the extra money for a 9711.

McBryce.

[URI]

Won an *bay-auction today:
A HP 437B powermeter in good working condition for less then 120EUR incl. shipping.

Have to acquire power sensor(s) now.. 

It's another item from the service manuals test instruments list of my signal generator.     

[alm]

Getting a working power sensor cheaply is the hard part in my opinion. They get killed from excessive power, are beyond economical repair if the sensor is blown, and many are offered untested, as-is, making buying them a gamble.

[URI]

Getting a working power sensor cheaply is the hard part in my opinion. They get killed from excessive power, are beyond economical repair if the sensor is blown, and many are offered untested, as-is, making buying them a gamble.

Yes, I know.

I hope that the HP 8482A Power Sensor sold as "Tested and working condition, pulled from working environment" I just bought on *bay for ~130EUR (after some negotiating with the seller) +35EUR shipping + customs ( how much..?) will proof being a good buy. *fingers crossed*

A 11730A Power Sensor cable (50EUR incl. shipping) will be shipped tomorrow.

Power Meters seem to be like lathes:
The machine itself may have a given price but the tools and accessories will easily multiply that.     

[SeanB]

Tested the AVO 15V battery, and it is dead, shuffled off this mortal coil, gone to meet it's maker Ever Ready. Replacement will be easy, going to strip the case off carefully, then remove the stack of waxed prismatic carbon cells inside there, and grab 5 Cr 2025 coin cells as a replacement, fitting them into some shrink sleeve and using a pair of contacts each end to go to the original terminals. Then will make up a new box to suit and put the stack in there. Now to go get a pack of those expensive D cells, or get a pack of C cells ( a lot cheaper) and make up some adaptors to make them fit in place of a D cell, or order some AA to D adaptors on fleabay.

[tautech]

Tested the AVO 15V battery, and it is dead, shuffled off this mortal coil, gone to meet it's maker Ever Ready. Replacement will be easy, going to strip the case off carefully, then remove the stack of waxed prismatic carbon cells inside there, and grab 5 Cr 2025 coin cells as a replacement, fitting them into some shrink sleeve and using a pair of contacts each end to go to the original terminals. Then will make up a new box to suit and put the stack in there. Now to go get a pack of those expensive D cells, or get a pack of C cells ( a lot cheaper) and make up some adaptors to make them fit in place of a D cell, or order some AA to D adaptors on fleabay.

Sean, in my AVO 8 Mk 5, I made a stack of LR44 button cells and added a bit of copper tube to match the 15V cell length and then held it all together with some heatshrink.
Over here we can get a card of 10 of LR44 for $2.

[SeanB]

Did think of that, but have a lot of CR2025 cells around from old computers, and they are still good, so no cost for the modification aside from a little time.

[beanflying]

I brought a box for filtering and balancing phantoms from the local junk/surplus shop ....

I also got a heap of very nice nickel soon to be raw copper binding posts and two mystery boxes of maybe oil filled R L and or C's. for my $15. 

[gamalot]

Wiha 27590 Precision Hex Tools, Metric, ESD Safe Dissipative, 0.7mm - 4.0mm, 8 Piece

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CW6GJO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Engineer PH-55 Tetsuwan Scissors GT

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QTRJA4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[GreyWoolfe]

Nice scissors, but I don't think I could use them.  The handles seem a bit small and I have big hands (size 13 wedding ring).  That's a shame.  I have a set of bandage scissors in my toolbox that I use, I've even cut pennies in half as a demonstration.

[gamalot]

Nice scissors, but I don't think I could use them.  The handles seem a bit small and I have big hands (size 13 wedding ring).  That's a shame.  I have a set of bandage scissors in my toolbox that I use, I've even cut pennies in half as a demonstration.

I have no idea how big your hands are, I don't know any thing about ring size, but I know you are definitely right! because my hands are so small, even smaller than most chinese women's hands. 

[Specmaster]

The ring light I ordered to see if I could make it fit my microscope arrived today and as promised here are some photos of it mounted (I did get it to fit after all) and a couple of screen grabs 1st one with the built in light and the second with the ring light on. I'm a happy bunny.



Yeh, I know, clean the screen...

[AF6LJ]

I brought a box for filtering and balancing phantoms from the local junk/surplus shop ....

I also got a heap of very nice nickel soon to be raw copper binding posts and two mystery boxes of maybe oil filled R L and or C's. for my $15. 

Those terminals look like they are silver plated.
Could be wrong, could be the lighting.

[ChrisLX200]

The ring light I ordered to see if I could make it fit my microscope arrived today and as promised here are some photos of it mounted (I did get it to fit after all) and a couple of screen grabs 1st one with the built in light and the second with the ring light on. I'm a happy bunny.

...

Yeh, I know, clean the screen...

...

Looks like a big improvement - can't tell if it's brighter but reflections certainly less 

[Specmaster]

The ring light I ordered to see if I could make it fit my microscope arrived today and as promised here are some photos of it mounted (I did get it to fit after all) and a couple of screen grabs 1st one with the built in light and the second with the ring light on. I'm a happy bunny.

...

Yeh, I know, clean the screen...

...

Looks like a big improvement - can't tell if it's brighter but reflections certainly less 

Oh its definitely brighter, I had a dimmed a bit on the photo and as you say, less shadows is good. Theres still sufficient room to get in and solder as well with the ring fitted.

[blueskull]

My I-Extruder has arrived. It works fine with EFD 63/37 solder. I don't have SAC305 in EFD syringe, so I will have to test it out later.

Also ordered today is a SiLego dev kit and some DIP carrier boards for those chips.

Need a tiny part as a low voltage LLC converter controller. Space is at premium, so I decided to give SiLego+EFM8SB a try. The SiLego is 1.0mm*1.2mm, the EFM8SB1 is 1.7mm*1.8mm. Together they can form a simple 200kHz~2MHz digital LLC controller.

The SiLego serves as a VCO, 50% duty cycle generator, dead time generator and clock feedback divider. The MCU samples output voltage and uses its internal PWM to control the VCO based on PI controller, it also uses its timer to read divided switching frequency to make sure the LLC operates in monotonic region.

The goal is to build a primary side regulated 2.5W LLC in less than 2.5mm*10mm*0.6mm (MCU, SiLego, gate driver, FETs, current sense LPF, voltage sense divider, tank L, tank C) excluding xfmr and output rectifier.

[bitseeker]

The ring light I ordered to see if I could make it fit my microscope arrived today and as promised here are some photos of it mounted (I did get it to fit after all) and a couple of screen grabs 1st one with the built in light and the second with the ring light on. I'm a happy bunny.

Yeah, that was a marked improvement. Much more even lighting.

[woody]

My I-Extruder has arrived. It works fine with EFD 63/37 solder. I don't have SAC305 in EFD syringe, so I will have to test it out later.

I'm very interested in your findings; are they better than the air powered devices?

[blueskull]

My I-Extruder has arrived. It works fine with EFD 63/37 solder. I don't have SAC305 in EFD syringe, so I will have to test it out later.

I'm very interested in your findings; are they better than the air powered devices?

I don't think they are nearly as controllable as EFD system. The I-Extruder has a fairly bad mechanical structure, hence it stores elastic energy, which makes precisely control amount of dispensing hard.

They kinda solved this issue by implementing pull-back, which greatly alleviates this issue. Still, solder cream control is not as good as an EFD system.

The EFD is just too noisy, and I don't want to go to the lab for everything. I try to do things from home as much as possible, hence the I-Extruder.

I don't want to run a compressor at home, nor having a compressed gas cylinder and regulator set.

[beanflying]

My toy budget is blown so all I could afford was these holes....

[vk6zgo]

My toy budget is blown so all I could afford was these holes....

Useful for your PNP devices.   

[BU508A]

Bought an update (2018 version) for my vrt (comparison table for semiconductors)

http://www.eca.de/en/

[VK5RC]

A USA power extension cable!
Actually a bit difficult to source in Aust. I am about to test a very old and crusty Yaesu FT101 transceiver (with 115V input), and I need a power cable with a USA socket - I can then join it to my AC lab power supply (Keysight AC6802A) - with variable voltage and current limits to do the 'smoke' test . 
We need an emoticon with hair standing up!

[CatalinaWOW]

A USA power extension cable!
Actually a bit difficult to source in Aust. I am about to test a very old and crusty Yaesu FT101 transceiver (with 115V input), and I need a power cable with a USA socket - I can then join it to my AC lab power supply (Keysight AC6802A) - with variable voltage and current limits to do the 'smoke' test . 
We need an emoticon with hair standing up!

I would think you could order them from China, just like we do.

[paulca]

10x NE5532 opamps.
100m Isopropanol Alcohol
12mm Paint brush
Rolson magnifier visor