What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[eti]

I bought a ticket for the first commercial Virgin Galactic flight.

Ground Control to Major Eti
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Eti?

Ground control to planet obscure - we don't speak your language - we know the song, but the reference is too oblique in this context.

As regards space flight - if I had a less forgiving nature, and a VAST amount of wealth, I can imagine a lot of people I'd load onto a one-way flight to the far flung corners of the western spiral arm of the galaxy 

[armandine2]

Today i joined the Kunkin electronic load club - junior member KP182. Came in reasonable time from order (Banggood) and looks in mint and robust condition. The banana jack sockets are fine for my 4 mm plugs (some Youtubers were indicating theirs were loose). Plugged it in and had a quick low power play with the controls - intuitive user experience (after watching plenty of unboxings).

Sadly one of my "electronics" book orders I was expecting from one of the big secondhand book sellers seems to have been cancelled today. Doesn't happen often but is always a bit of poor consumer experience.

[m3vuv]

beer!

[Ed.Kloonk]

beer!

I hope you bought enough for everybody.

[Mortymore]

Fender Rumble LT25 (bass combo amp)
Ibanez GSRM20B-WK Mikro (electric short scale bass)
Fender 9m Original Coil Cable Red Jack
Fender 3m Professional Glow in the Dark Cable Blue (images attached)
Fender Weighless Tweed Grey (elastic shoulder strap)
Fender Strap Blocks Black
Fender Original Guitar Tuner Surf Green
Gruvgear Fretwrap MD (MD is for 5 string bass, they didn't have the SM version for 4 strings)



PS: I need to buy more beer

[armandine2]

arrived Today via white van man: Smallish (200mm) low cost ratchet crimper - heard good things about, came with the gear to experiment with and a good attempt at a user manual.

Preciva PR-3254

first crimp seemed to work ok - really need an inspection microscope now

[pizzigri]

Hello everyone!
So today I bought a NOS rebranded digital multimeter, by a now dead electronics company, sold by a used gear broker. It is a "custom" version of the quite ooold 50k counts Mastech MS 8218, custom being the color blue instead of green and of course the IS logo on it.
I actually know zilch of the company that imported this DMM in Italy, however the price was so frigging good (50 Euro each) for the DMM, nylon carry bag, reasonably good probes, the optical to RS232 cable for PC connectivity and SW CD,  that I purchased two of them!
I took some pics of the DMM as it came  - it even included six AAA batteries, that obviously leaked, luckily they were inside a plastic bag so no damage done. These DMM must have been in storage for a huge amount of time.
I could not wait so I compared the 10K "reference" resistor I built some time ago and a 10V LM399AH based "reference", with a calibrated Agilent 34401A; the results are quite surprising, the thing seems to be good! Caveat, I had not done proper burn in or let anything heat up for hours, the 10V ref was on for just 20 minutes, and the 34401 as well.
All in all I am really happy about these meters!

Edited to remove duplicated pic

[Zeyneb]

arrived Today via white van man: Smallish (200mm) low cost ratchet crimper - heard good things about, came with the gear to experiment with and a good attempt at a user manual.

Preciva PR-3254

first crimp seemed to work ok - really need an inspection microscope now

That is a nice thing. Also the kit of pin headers you get along with it. You also do PCB design? That is the main application is suppose?

You might also consider buying a headband magnifier for inspection. Maybe a bit more practical.

[mansaxel]

A new (as in "Display film still on" new) old stock Fluke 27/AN (CE), with 40KV and 6KV probes, and a RF probe. Manuals per original spec included. All cased in original case, meter sealed with USMC TMDE CAMP cal sticker. Original case, tagged with USMC inventory tag, shipped in original Fluke carton.

Price: Less than what a used 6KV divider probe usually goes for.

Shipping and customs from USA to Sweden: Slightly too much...

[MrMobodies]

Found this cheap little step up regulator thing with a display for the input and put voltage and current.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294221163285





Backlight seems a bit too bright so tried to dim it with some layers of kapton tape.

[deadlylover]

Oh my god it's beautiful!

I took the battery out and tested how it performs on solar only. It will turn on at ~70lux but dims the display or shuts down on operation. It works flawlessly at ~120 lux.

Works wonderfully as a desktop calculator. Feet are nice and grippy so it doesn't slide around, and the LCD is slightly tilted and the bias is set so it stays legible at shallow angles.

Grr they used a cheap arse LR44 alkaline, I will change it to a SR44 cell when it dies. Rated battery life is 3 years @ 1 hour per day so with my usage maybe it'll take a decade. 

[mansaxel]

Oh my god it's beautiful!

I see no ENTER key. How can you use that?

[Shock]

Oh my god it's beautiful!

Nice, I've had a Casio MS170LA for 20 years and haven't changed the battery, should measure it . It's similar to the MS170TV in the below image. I like the button spacing on these as I have larger than average hands. Not as pretty as yours though.

[armandine2]

The invisible IWISS SN 025

[chickenHeadKnob]

Oh my god it's beautiful!
I took the battery out and tested how it performs on solar only. It will turn on at ~70lux but dims the display or shuts down on operation. It works flawlessly at ~120 lux.

I have a sharp twin power solar/bat EL-540D purchased in around 1985 with a thoroughly dead battery. I relegated to the back of my desk drawer because it would never work under incandescent lighting. Then one day out of boredom I tried  it under a desk lamp that I switched to soft white LED.  The bulb is a pretty weak-ass 9W cheapy.

It Works!, happy as a clam actually. (if clams can actually be happy)

[Ed.Kloonk]

Not a real calculator if it can't display 5318008

[old-jo]

Nice, I've had a Casio MS170LA

What a coincidence. I got a similar calculator: Casio MJ-120T. The one I got doesn't have those slide switches.

[AntiProtonBoy]

Samsung 970 EVO NVMe SSD 500GB for a workstation dedicated for building C++ projects. Compared to the old drive, the performance of this SSD is going to be absolutely tits.

[richnormand]

Nice, I've had a Casio MS170LA for 20 years and haven't changed the battery, should measure it

I have a pretty old Casio fx-991ms that has a similar setup as yours with the solar cell and an internal battery.
The about 10 years ago I noticed that the moment I would put my hand over the solar cell it would die. I opened it and the cell was easy to change. It was a bit bloated and crusty at the seal but no visible damage around to be seen.
I would suggest that if you like the calculator it would be wise to check the battery.

PS: Your post just made me do the quick test again. My battery is still good

[beanflying]

I brought 4kg of waterjet cut holes in 40kg of Pickled and Oiled steel and a bigger paperweight.

[Gyro]

A lucky find of an old Pioneer guillotine from a junk shop while visiting my son this week. I'm not sure how old it is, probably1940s - I haven't found any reference on the web yet.

The cutting width is only 42mm, but from the solidity of its construction, length of lever, and toughness of the blades, it must have been designed for steel. I've dismantled it, cleaned it, given the blades a quick hone, and re-greased it. It cuts non-ferrous and FR4 like butter, no tendency to tip even tiny unsupported pieces. It will be just the thing for cutting metal strip to length and trimming bits of PCB for Manhattan style construction.

That big Mahogany block is probably going to get replaced with something less valuable too. 

[tautech]

One of Leo's pulsers:
http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=124&products_id=295

[deadlylover]

Wohooo IKEA NiMH batteries still made in Japan. (I know it was confirmed by other members but it's great to receive the good stuff in case they do a switcheroo)

For context, there is only one NiMH AA/AAA battery factory in Japan, the FDK facility. So if you ever find some rechargeable batteries made in Japan then you know it's coming from the same place as the eneloops. I don't think they use the cutting edge chemistry for the rebrands (no way they do binning right?), but I've tested the capacity to only be around 1% lower.

Either way they are excellent cells, especially for the price! (half the price of eneloops, if that)

[wkb]

Non-rechargeables from IKEA used to be made by Varta. Also good stuff

[DC1MC]

Some original Metcal tips for SMD and SOIC:

4x SMTC-101
1x SMTC-102
1x SMTC-109


https://www.ebay.de/itm/233194371268

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/BOcAAOSwdi5eMurS/s-l1600.jpg