What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[mindcrime]

Heard some muttering and cursing, followed by a loud thump outside my door earlier. Must have been the UPS / Amazon guy. That can only mean one thing... Unboxing day!!!



What could possibly be in this big arse pile of boxes???





Hmm... I think I remember ordering a bunch of HDMI cables in different lengths, those are probably in here.





Yep. 









Solder is cool.



Wire connectors. OK.



Alligator clips. Check.



New Arduino IoT board! Yay! 



WTF? Could it be...





Yes! A PCBite!!



Dunno what this is, but it has something of a "Mission: Impossible" feel to it.







Just some counter-bore drill bits. Phooey.







The perfect complement to all that new solder!




Clearly gonna need better filter(s) for this thing though. You could drive a Mack truck through this.












And last, but not least... A new desk lamp!   

[Ed.Kloonk]

Heard some muttering and cursing, followed by a loud thump outside my door earlier. Must have been the UPS / Amazon guy. That can only mean one thing... Unboxing day!!!

I know why he was muttering. He forgot the kitchen sink.

[GreyWoolfe]

I picked up something that I have wanted for a very long time but I am cheap and wanted a deal.  Found a Powr Kraft sold by Monkey Ward floor standing drill press quite cheap, at least to me, 100 yankee bux.  The guy I bought it from is older than me and it was his father's who was a machinist.  Needs a good cleanup and I have to get rid of some surface rust.  Guy believes it's from the 50's, like me and it has its quirks, like me!  The return spring is broke but they are cheap.  Also, most of the time, you have to spin the chuck by hand after turning it on to get it moving but it is quiet and smooth when up to speed.  He also said that his dad added pulleys to make it a 3 speed press.  Not sure if it is true, haven't tried to get model number off the plaque and do some research.  I can tug on the chuck at full extension and there is no movement.  As an occasional use item, it will live a good life in the garage and it will even be covered when not in use.

[mindcrime]

Heard some muttering and cursing, followed by a loud thump outside my door earlier. Must have been the UPS / Amazon guy. That can only mean one thing... Unboxing day!!!

I know why he was muttering. He forgot the kitchen sink.

The bastid should be thanking his lucky stars that I didn't go on Ebay and order any more old HP / Agilent / Keysight test gear for him to haul up stairs!!! 

[Crashpc_CZ]

Cool stuff!
You certainly make yourself happy! :-)
Copying my soon "former" job toolset.
better DMM, Scope, generator, soldering station, hot air station, table drill, micro drill (I have more tools already), screws&nuts M2-M12, components PTH and SMT, shrink tubes and tapes, some basic boards, arduino and such. Let´s say $3000 starter kit. :-)
Hopefully I will do more work on myself rather than in not-very-thankful-job. Good days coming hopefully.
Any ideas and tips on what else would "young" electronics guy need?

[mindcrime]

The rest of my recent order finally showed up:



Multicore - the good stuff.



That said, Kester is OK too.



For cleaning up afterwards.







Some connectors. I actually have a question about these, which I'll post in another thread. This isn't quite what I'm looking for, but not sure if there's an alternative.






Batch of random stuff from Adafruit.



Adafruit are kind enough to include one of these in every order. #SAFETYFIRST

[mindcrime]

better DMM, Scope, generator, soldering station, hot air station, table drill, micro drill (I have more tools already), screws&nuts M2-M12, components PTH and SMT, shrink tubes and tapes, some basic boards, arduino and such. Let´s say $3000 starter kit. :-)
Hopefully I will do more work on myself rather than in not-very-thankful-job. Good days coming hopefully.
Any ideas and tips on what else would "young" electronics guy need?

Have you seen Dave's video on how to kit out an electronics lab?

[DrG]

My friend's story about getting nicked by a mower blade (a thumb full of stitches), started me thinking about how much I use a Dremel saw blade and decided that one of these might be a good idea

[rsjsouza]

That is interesting; I lost count of how many cutting discs shattered while using the Dremel. That is why I always use large protective glasses with this tool and occasionally thick gloves.

[Mortymore]

Electric Bass Ibanez SR300EB WK Weathered Black, a bag Ibanez IBB540 and a shoulder strap.
Guitar stand Gravity Vari-G 3 and an extra guitar support to adapt for an ukulele.

[Cubdriver]

That is interesting; I lost count of how many cutting discs shattered while using the Dremel. That is why I always use large protective glasses with this tool and occasionally thick gloves.

I used to have that problem with the pure abrasive ones, too - I'd get most of the way through whatever I was cutting, then twist slightly by accident and the wheel would vaporize.  As would the following three, almost immediately.  Then about ten years back I was looking around at the store and discovered that they'd come put with fiber reinforced ones with a quick-lock mandrel.  More $$, but they completely eliminated my 'grenading cut off wheel' issues, so I've been buying those ever since and never looked back.  Given that I can consistently use them until they've worn to bloody nubs, they're probably overall cheaper because they don't shatter if you so much as twitch, meaning you won't go through half a package if not properly caffeinated while making a cut.

https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-EZ409-2-Inch-Lock-Thin/dp/B000WMHMXY/ref=asc_df_B000WMHMXY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312003160272&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12553201669271630417&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9003419&hvtargid=pla-433539240869&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-EZ402-EZ-Lock-Mandrel/dp/B000FBLRWE/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/133-3356819-8274737?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000FBLRWE&pd_rd_r=2bacd704-e10d-4f31-87a8-c1c963702bbf&pd_rd_w=qRL0k&pd_rd_wg=1cn7v&pf_rd_p=fd3ebcd0-c1a2-44cf-aba2-bbf4810b3732&pf_rd_r=Y2YMK1NKBD9X6YJBEB5C&psc=1&refRID=Y2YMK1NKBD9X6YJBEB5C

-Pat

[jonovid]

Potentiometer Knob Little Panda Knob
listed as little panda radio vernier dial & knob
or R-6 little panda knob (SB-360)

fits 1/4' shafts   8 to 1 fine adjustment ratio

easily modified with new or other knob or pointer
see images

[charles.ouweland]

I recently bought 2 brand spanking new (well, NOS out of the '50's but in pristine condition) Philips E1T's, which are a funny combination of a dekatron with a CRT. I'm so excited!
On the bottom is printed: WK1 M58. Does that mean it's produced in week 1 of 1958 or what?

[rsjsouza]

Beautiful valves!
A quick search reveals the M58 may refer to December 1958 (A = Jan, B = Feb and so on). The WK1 may be related to the country of origin.

[duckduck]

A new DER DE-5000 LCR meter with the tweezers, alligator clips, and ground cable accessories. I've been sniffing around these for a while. Got a good deal on it, so I pulled the trigger. Oh, what a merry evening of measuring all of my capacitors I have to look forward to when this machine is set upon my doorstep. Stock photo attached.

[gamalot]

An uninvited guest! I ordered an Alienware T-shirt from Dell before. After waiting for a long time, their customer service emailed me that the L size was out of stock and asked if I could accept the XL size. So I chose to cancel the order and they quickly refunded me. The story should have ended here, but I got an XL size Alienware T-shirt delivered this afternoon, what should I do now?   

[Ed.Kloonk]

but I got an XL size Alienware T-shirt delivered this afternoon, what should I do now?   

Start eating lots of pizza.

[Black Phoenix]

A new DER DE-5000 LCR meter with the tweezers, alligator clips, and ground cable accessories. I've been sniffing around these for a while. Got a good deal on it, so I pulled the trigger. Oh, what a merry evening of measuring all of my capacitors I have to look forward to when this machine is set upon my doorstep. Stock photo attached.

There it is something that I've been missing and post-noting to buy one. It will be this year definitely.

Well from me I've been buying some stuff since last update:


Some games for the Nintendo Switch (Xenoblade 2 - Torna, Sonic Mania Plus and Fire Emblem 3H), a pair of clip on headphones (Audio Technica ATH-EM7x) that are surprisingly good for gaming on the go and the new member of the family - A GBA that I got for 120RMB all scuffed up and battered and with more dust and dirt than I was expecting to see inside. Spent 120RMB more and bought a replacement shell, new buttons and membranes plus a Glass Lens since the original is plastic and looked like sandpaper.

Thrown everything in the trash except the Mainboard, LCD and Speaker. Spent an afternoon cleaning everything with Isopropyl Alcohol, and reassembling everything. What it misses now is some reproduction stickers on the back with the original SN (I kept it before throwing the old shell away).

[thm_w]

8000 pcs of TDK MLP1005M1R0DT0S1 for $100 from a HQB liquidator. 2014 vintage NOS with original TDK and Digikey labels still on.

I figure that 0402 industors suitable for MHz SMPS applications are rare, and it just happens I prefer to save every possible square mm on my board, so I bought a few to try it out. It turns out that this thing works happily with EA3036, a super cheap 3mm*3mm 3ch buck converter IC.

Realistically I do not expect this thing to deliver anything more than 400mA, but for IO voltage or core voltage of a tiny FPGA, this is more than enough, at a small size (with EA3036 and this 0402 inductor and 0402 caps and 0201 resistors, at 3 ch this can beat many SiP modules).

Isn't 400mA really pushing it? ~80mW dissipation. An 0402 resistor is something like 50-60mW.
But yeah first time I used a 0603 bead for a PSU I thought it just won't work.. its not a "proper" wound inductor.
EA3036 looks really good for 10c.

[mindcrime]

Uh oh... Digi-Key. This looks important!



Multi multi-core!



And whatever the hell this is supposed to be.



This would've been handy for opening that box. 



Could work for applying extra flux?




Doesn't *look* very smart.




But it has Bluetooth, so there's always that.




I should probably read a book every now and then, or something.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Hey your pics are not showing up. All I see where ever image should be is the wrong way sign that you see in France.

[mindcrime]

Hey your pics are not showing up. All I see where ever image should be is the wrong way sign that you see in France.

Mine? If so, I don't know what to say. Google Photos is f%#!ng weird with sharing / permissions. :-(

[josh132]

Prototype PCBs from digikey.

[Ground_Loop]

Finally got a microscope big enough to work under. I did a few leads of a QFP64 and giggled a little.

[xrunner]

Finally got a microscope big enough to work under. I did a few leads of a QFP64 and giggled a little.

Nice setup you got!