What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Terry01]

Bought this last week, was always on my wanted list but since the price now dropped <€100 I could not resist getting one, a Wiha Torque screwdriver with universal bitholder so I can use all my bits and set the torque on the screwdriver from 0,8Nm - 5Nm
Wiha, what else ? 

Nice driver set buddy!

Looks very well made and put together and well worth the price. I'm sure it'll last you a long long time.

[Specmaster]

As promised here are a couple of photos of the new scope, nice, now to learn how use this beast, much different to other scopes.

[gamalot]

My first vintage Keithley instrument. 

Here is the video from The Signal Path:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pMYK5qoQvYo

[Specmaster]

In the auction where I won that Fluke 3390B, there was also a Keithley 220 and 230 and I almost went for them but decided against because of their size and once I calibrated my meters etc, they would be gathering dust. Besides it be getting to the stage where I'd be getting calibrators to check calibrators and thats a step far 

[gamalot]

In the auction where I won that Fluke 3390B, there was also a Keithley 220 and 230 and I almost went for them but decided against because of their size and once I calibrated my meters etc, they would be gathering dust. Besides it be getting to the stage where I'd be getting calibrators to check calibrators and thats a step far 

I have 30+ bench instruments and most of them are not necessary. 

[Specmaster]

In the auction where I won that Fluke 3390B, there was also a Keithley 220 and 230 and I almost went for them but decided against because of their size and once I calibrated my meters etc, they would be gathering dust. Besides it be getting to the stage where I'd be getting calibrators to check calibrators and thats a step far 

I have 30+ bench instruments and most of them are not necessary. 

I can echo that as well, ut I do need to squeeze me into my tiny box room 

[Nominal Animal]

Analog Discovery 2! (Digilent Inc. documentation)

I was saving up to a benchtop oscilloscope, but realized I could not afford that and differential probes.  I want to do differential measurements, to characterize power supplies I can use with SBCs like Odroid HC1 that require a well-regulated 5V supply.  (They're very finicky, and if you use a spinning-disk HDD, they also require quite a lot of current.) The 100 Msps definitely suffices for me for now, as does the ±25V analog and ±5V digital signal range.  I'm also working on some microcontroller projects, including one scientific one, interfacing to pressure and PT100 temperature sensors in an experiment. I've needed tools to examine e.g. power rail noise, since the sensors are quite sensitive; I'm hoping the AD2 will help.

[Terry01]

As promised here are a couple of photos of the new scope, nice, now to learn how use this beast, much different to other scopes.

That's 1 nice instrument buddy! I am a little jealous! JUST A LITTLE!!!!! honest just a little 

[Specmaster]

Well, keep your eyes peeled for companies pulling out the UK because of the forthcoming Brexit, thats how I got this one. Philips are pulling out of UK and moving into Europe and just getting auction houses to clear out their old premises. This came from a working Lab and they had about 6 of these, mixed between 100MHz and 200MHz, the others were 4 channels which I prefered TBH but they rapidly rose to dizzy prices. This little 2 channel chappy started off low in the pre auction bids and I was a little worried if everyone else had been to site and knew something I didn't. I however went for it and it went for a low price + buyers premium and VAT. However, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about, its fine.

[tsman]

Analog Discovery 2!

It isn't differential input but the BNC adapter for the Analog Discovery is a useful addition. Increases bandwidth for the scope + signal generator functions and lets you use regular scope probes. The digital I/O lines are passed straight through. I'd recommend getting some jumpers with the long tabs though as the 0/50 Ohm impedance selection jumpers on the adapter are a bit annoying to pull out.

[beanflying]

Replaced my 'Nicad' generation Hitachi cordless drill with a Makita Drill Driver (and angle grinder coming in a promo). For Aussies - watch the Bunnings version it includes a lower spec driver! $649 btw

Why did I wait so long  Awesome amount of power now what to screw or drill first.

Think that is about the pre EOFY Tax time $ spent 

[julianhigginson]

A new radiator for my car, and an oil change.

the poor thing totally blew up while coming up a hill on the way home on Tuesday night.. radiator had ruptured and the first I saw of it was the engine acting weird, and a few extra noises, then I saw the temperature was way up, and when I looked back in the rear view mirror a whole bunch of white "smoke" following me up the hill... when I stopped the car and opened the bonnet, it was like a cartoon car breakdown. thick steam pouring up into the sky.

Anyway... after arranging to get it towed to my mechanic, the mechanic said he expected the engine was dead, and since this is my crappy little cheap runabout, that would mean goodbye, and back to the 2nd-hand runabout lottery to find a replacement. I was a bit sad about that as this car has actually been a great little reliable machine.

So I'm really happy to hear that somehow the engine survived its cooking, and my daggy little 1999 corolla hatch can keep pottering up and down the hill between my house and office for a while yet.

[Mr. Scram]

Replaced my 'Nicad' generation Hitachi cordless drill with a Makita Drill Driver (and angle grinder coming in a promo). For Aussies - watch the Bunnings version it includes a lower spec driver! $649 btw

Why did I wait so long  Awesome amount of power now what to screw or drill first.

Think that is about the pre EOFY Tax time $ spent 

I'll refrain from commenting on what you can screw or drill first. Really, I won't say a thing. Not even a peep.

[Terry01]

Well, keep your eyes peeled for companies pulling out the UK because of the forthcoming Brexit, thats how I got this one. Philips are pulling out of UK and moving into Europe and just getting auction houses to clear out their old premises. This came from a working Lab and they had about 6 of these, mixed between 100MHz and 200MHz, the others were 4 channels which I prefered TBH but they rapidly rose to dizzy prices. This little 2 channel chappy started off low in the pre auction bids and I was a little worried if everyone else had been to site and knew something I didn't. I however went for it and it went for a low price + buyers premium and VAT. However, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about, its fine.

Yup, you got a score there for sure!

Any of the things I have had any interest in at the auctions ends up going for too much £££'s. I'll just keep watching like you say though and i'm sure 1 will turn out in my favour sometime.
That's the thing with the actions, you get the item itself for a decent price but when you add auction fees and taxes then shipping it can get to eye watering numbers quite fast!
It's hard to stop when you start bidding up. I always think …. right..... when it gets to X amount i'll give out but always end up going over at least a little bit.


Enjoy your new toy! 

[Specmaster]

Well, keep your eyes peeled for companies pulling out the UK because of the forthcoming Brexit, thats how I got this one. Philips are pulling out of UK and moving into Europe and just getting auction houses to clear out their old premises. This came from a working Lab and they had about 6 of these, mixed between 100MHz and 200MHz, the others were 4 channels which I prefered TBH but they rapidly rose to dizzy prices. This little 2 channel chappy started off low in the pre auction bids and I was a little worried if everyone else had been to site and knew something I didn't. I however went for it and it went for a low price + buyers premium and VAT. However, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about, its fine.

Yup, you got a score there for sure!

Any of the things I have had any interest in at the auctions ends up going for too much £££'s. I'll just keep watching like you say though and i'm sure 1 will turn out in my favour sometime.
That's the thing with the actions, you get the item itself for a decent price but when you add auction fees and taxes then shipping it can get to eye watering numbers quite fast!
It's hard to stop when you start bidding up. I always think …. right..... when it gets to X amount i'll give out but always end up going over at least a little bit.


Enjoy your new toy! 

Thanks I will, I agree, the jumps in price are small in this type of auction and when you reach your limit and a another bid arrives you nearly always go on another couple of bids. Reality is different when add in the fees, they become bigger steps than you thought.

Shipping on this auction wasn't an option, collection was mandatory and by appointment so that I think limits the prices a bit.

Something will turn up in the end, I was just lucky 1st time around and that's unusual for me.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[beanflying]

I'll refrain from commenting on what you can screw or drill first. Really, I won't say a thing. Not even a peep.

And yet you get the award for the reader whos mind went into the gutter first and then engaged their pinkies 

[GreyWoolfe]

That's the thing with the actions, you get the item itself for a decent price but when you add auction fees and taxes then shipping it can get to eye watering numbers quite fast!
It's hard to stop when you start bidding up. I always think …. right..... when it gets to X amount i'll give out but always end up going over at least a little bit.
Enjoy your new toy! 

I do not give in to the temptation of 'just one more bid'  It even surprises SWMBO at my self control.  I buy the occasional diecast car off of evilBay for my collection and I have lost a bid for pennies because I do set a hard limit so I don't get caught up in the 'just one more bid' syndrome and end up paying more than what it is worth.  On TME, I look for stuff with a make offer button.  If my offer is accepted, great.  If the counter offer is acceptable, great.  Otherwise, I walk away to buy another day.

[Specmaster]

That's the thing with the actions, you get the item itself for a decent price but when you add auction fees and taxes then shipping it can get to eye watering numbers quite fast!
It's hard to stop when you start bidding up. I always think …. right..... when it gets to X amount i'll give out but always end up going over at least a little bit.
Enjoy your new toy! 

I do not give in to the temptation of 'just one more bid'  It even surprises SWMBO at my self control.  I buy the occasional diecast car off of evilBay for my collection and I have lost a bid for pennies because I do set a hard limit so I don't get caught up in the 'just one more bid' syndrome and end up paying more than what it is worth.  On TME, I look for stuff with a make offer button.  If my offer is accepted, great.  If the counter offer is acceptable, great.  Otherwise, I walk away to buy another day.

Thats great and amazing self control, but sometimes I have been waiting for so long to find something and I mean a long time, that I really don't want to wait that long again if there is a slight chance that a small tweak to my bid could win it. In other words, I don't have your self control, I get a bit impatient and just go for it until it gets to a point beyond which I just don't go. Hmm thinking about it, I do have your control then, just that I set myself an ideal figure that I want to pay and a maximum if pushed.

[Nominal Animal]

It isn't differential input but the BNC adapter for the Analog Discovery is a useful addition.

For now, I'll start by cobbling together a 2+2 4mm banana jack panel I can connect to the Analog Discovery 2, and use the two differential channels using cheap probes. I really only need sub-MHz bandwidth for now (for investigating power rail noise and glitches in various projects that have stalled due to lack of test and measurement equipment!), but I definitely need the differential probes.

(A 16x2 (8x4) panel with standard separation between each pair would be even nicer; you would then get every pin on a banana jack. At a standard 0.75" grid, it'd be about 7" by 4"; might make a nice cover for the AD2.. Or maybe I could do a fanout from a short 34-pin ribbon cable?)

If I was using a say Rigol DS1054z without true differential probes, just using two separate channels and display math to measure the voltage drop of a 0.01Ohm resistor at 5V, I would not get even one-ampere resolution (because 1A drops 0.01V over a 0.01Ohm resistor, and the scope resolution is at best 5V/256 ≃ 0.02V, 0.04V at ±5V range). What I would like to do, however, is measure and record the voltage drop over that resistor, and the 5V voltage itself, at say 100 kS/s to 1 MS/s continuously at maybe 0.05V and 10mA resolution, to see how each supply copes with different loads, as well as whether there are problematic glitches. And if glitches do occur, whether added bulk capacitance or a pi filter (on SBC input) fixes it.  I can do that with a Teensy 3.2 using my own circuit, but I didn't have anything to compare against and verify my circuit.

If one of my ~$10 DC-DC modules with an inhibit pin can provide max. 6A at 5V continuously without glitches (as the current demand is quite variable, 1A to up to 6A in short spikes), I can finish my Odroid-HC1 microcontroller carrier project: a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller that can be used for serial console, external display controller (either a cheap small TFT or OLED, for status information), external GPIO (the HC1 has none!) for a couple of buttons etc., monitoring the current and voltage supplied, as well as turn the Odroid-HC1 (or C1+ or XU4) off and on at desired intervals, keeping just the microcontroller always powered on.

It is amazing how hard some problems are, when you don't have good test and measurement tools!

[GreyWoolfe]

That's the thing with the actions, you get the item itself for a decent price but when you add auction fees and taxes then shipping it can get to eye watering numbers quite fast!
It's hard to stop when you start bidding up. I always think …. right..... when it gets to X amount i'll give out but always end up going over at least a little bit.
Enjoy your new toy! 

I do not give in to the temptation of 'just one more bid'  It even surprises SWMBO at my self control.  I buy the occasional diecast car off of evilBay for my collection and I have lost a bid for pennies because I do set a hard limit so I don't get caught up in the 'just one more bid' syndrome and end up paying more than what it is worth.  On TME, I look for stuff with a make offer button.  If my offer is accepted, great.  If the counter offer is acceptable, great.  Otherwise, I walk away to buy another day.

Thats great and amazing self control, but sometimes I have been waiting for so long to find something and I mean a long time, that I really don't want to wait that long again if there is a slight chance that a small tweak to my bid could win it. In other words, I don't have your self control, I get a bit impatient and just go for it until it gets to a point beyond which I just don't go. Hmm thinking about it, I do have your control then, just that I set myself an ideal figure that I want to pay and a maximum if pushed.

In my youth, I was the buzzard in the picture that said, patience my @ss, I'm gonna kill something.  Now that I am a greybeard, I am like the old bull.  When the young bull says lets run down and screw us a cow, the old bull says, let's walk down and screw them all. 

[tautech]

That's the thing with the actions, you get the item itself for a decent price but when you add auction fees and taxes then shipping it can get to eye watering numbers quite fast!
It's hard to stop when you start bidding up. I always think …. right..... when it gets to X amount i'll give out but always end up going over at least a little bit.
Enjoy your new toy! 

I do not give in to the temptation of 'just one more bid'  It even surprises SWMBO at my self control.  I buy the occasional diecast car off of evilBay for my collection and I have lost a bid for pennies because I do set a hard limit so I don't get caught up in the 'just one more bid' syndrome and end up paying more than what it is worth.  On TME, I look for stuff with a make offer button.  If my offer is accepted, great.  If the counter offer is acceptable, great.  Otherwise, I walk away to buy another day.

Thats great and amazing self control, but sometimes I have been waiting for so long to find something and I mean a long time, that I really don't want to wait that long again if there is a slight chance that a small tweak to my bid could win it. In other words, I don't have your self control, I get a bit impatient and just go for it until it gets to a point beyond which I just don't go. Hmm thinking about it, I do have your control then, just that I set myself an ideal figure that I want to pay and a maximum if pushed.

In my youth, I was the buzzard in the picture that said, patience my @ss, I'm gonna kill something.  Now that I am a greybeard, I am like the old bull.  When the young bull says lets run down and screw us a cow, the old bull says, let's walk down and screw them all. 

And take your good time while doing it too ! 

[rdl]

This NAD 310 arrived yesterday. It is intended to be a back up for the amplifier in my living room computer/TV setup, but here it is in my small bedroom system to test it out. I had a Sherwood receiver in this system before, so I had to take the Denon tuner out of storage for testing. I may leave it this way for now.

[tautech]

This NAD 310 arrived yesterday. It is intended to be a back up for the amplifier in my living room computer/TV setup, but here it is in my small bedroom system to test it out. I had a Sherwood receiver in this system before, so I had to take the Denon tuner out of storage for testing. I may leave it this way for now.

Curious, where did you get that handwoven rag mat that's underneath that stack ?

[rdl]

Curious, where did you get that handwoven rag mat that's underneath that stack ?

I don't really remember. I know I got it around 1994-95, so it was probably Target. That was where I usually shopped back then.

[tautech]

Curious, where did you get that handwoven rag mat that's underneath that stack ?

I don't really remember. I know I got it around 1994-95, so it was probably Target. That was where I usually shopped back then.

Thanks.
I asked 'cause it's very similar to what my parents made for tourists when we did farm tours back in 80's and we had a handcraft shop to help further relieve them of some $.