What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Specmaster]

Aoyua 474A+ de-soldering gun. It sucks and I was running out of braid anyway... 

It might suck  , but you'll still want quality desolder braid/wick to clean up the pads afterwards. 

How very true 

[Specmaster]

Just bagged myself a Fluke 8505A 6.5 digit bench meter on fleabay from the USA. I'll post a picture when it arrives if anyone is curious.

[bitseeker]

Pics are always good!

[djos]

Aoyua 474A+ de-soldering gun. It sucks and I was running out of braid anyway... 

It might suck  , but you'll still want quality desolder braid/wick to clean up the pads afterwards. 

Personally I've found my powered vacuum desoldering station cleans up Pads (SMD & TH) far better than wick ever could. I just add a little fresh solder and then vacuum it up - this leaves the pad with a super flat and shiny tinned surface which is ready for a new component.

[VE7FIM]

Dark Energy. Interesting name for an incendiary device.

Ran into these inside some LED lighting just a few days ago... Needless to say, they didn't end up on my ceiling either!

The controller was just left hanging loose inside the light fixture, surrounded with pointy metal pieces just waiting to puncture the thin tape it was wrapped with. That and the far too thin wire for mains AC at 15 amps.

It's a shame since the light fixture itself is quite nice.

[FrankBuss]

I bought a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor. They are a bit more expensive than the DHT sensors (about EUR 3 on eBay compared to EUR 1, and $9.95 at Adafruit  ), but the datasheet claims 0.5°C and 2% RH accuracy. I'm using it with this library. Glued on the inside of my formicarium:



Nest area:



Test setup. Will put this in a nice box when I have some time:



The ants are really strong, even if they are only about 2 mm long

[vk6zgo]

I bought one of,these at the Perth Hamfest:-
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=hp+410c+voltmeter&prmd=sivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwis2Mb6lc_WAhVFFZQKHaxIAf8Q_AUIDygC&biw=1024&bih=644#imgrc=fCC8OKBDzSuscM:

There were a few other instruments, such as a HP vector impedance bridge, a standalone FM deviation meter, a complete radio service module with Spectrum Analyser, signal generator, FM Dev & AM modulation meters,& so on, a couple of CROs (Hitachi &BWD), a Trimax Ionisation Tester, Levell & Leader signal generators, & other odds-n-sods.

Various Ham Rigs including SDR based units were also there.

[rollatorwieltje]

Dark Energy. Interesting name for an incendiary device.

Ran into these inside some LED lighting just a few days ago... Needless to say, they didn't end up on my ceiling either!

The controller was just left hanging loose inside the light fixture, surrounded with pointy metal pieces just waiting to puncture the thin tape it was wrapped with. That and the far too thin wire for mains AC at 15 amps.

It's a shame since the light fixture itself is quite nice.

I like how they also routed the mains next to the solder pads for the output. I wonder how many come shipped with the wires soldered to the wrong pad. 

[ChrisLX200]

Aoyua 474A+ de-soldering gun. It sucks and I was running out of braid anyway... 

It might suck  , but you'll still want quality desolder braid/wick to clean up the pads afterwards. 

I do have some braid left (excellent stuff made by M G Chemicals) but I'm getting through it way too fast and it's fairly expensive to buy. If all I need braid for in future is wiping pads off then that's fine.

Bit worried that the new version of the 474A+ is not as good as the original, now has a single ended 12V DC pump (the old one was dual and 250v AC), and the pump current passes through the gun back to the pump itself. Also some other neat features are missing. Oh well, it can be modded apparently.

[SeanB]

The wiring is the mains fuse, instead of that expensive fuse, or the even more expensive fusible resistor, they instead combined all 3 into the connection wire. high resistance as inrush limiting, plus the wire is a fuse at the same time.

@Frankbuss, hope you put in some sanity checking on the controller, as the corrosive gases the ants give off will fail that sensor quite quickly, and hopefully the failure will not result in cooking the inhabitants to death as well. Here ants do not need any sort of control for them to be happy, they will do it quite well by themselves, and the larger ones will build impressive mounds as well in doing so, and then you get to the largest social insects around, termites.

[FrankBuss]

Currently I'm only measuring, not regulating. The nest covers the heating mat about 10% at one side where the sensor is and if it gets to cold or too hot, I change the position over the heating mat manually, but it is quite stable at the moment. I don't think they will harm the sensors (they are only little 2 mm ants and I closed the bigger holes in the sensor with hot glue), but maybe a good idea to add another encapsulated IC sensor for the temperature for redundancy. Usually this species lives in South Africa, so they need some heat here in cold Europe. Without it they would die fast, no worries about invasive species, in case they manage to escape.

Next would be a regulator circuit for the mains powered heating mat. This would be interesting, because I've never done mains switching before. Will post schematics etc. in another thread before powering it up to avoid electrocuting me or the ants. Or maybe I do it the easy way and just hack the remote of a cheap RF controlled mains switch.

[SeanB]

Well, they do love lectronics, as the large number of nests i have removed from gate motors attests to, and they secrete formic acid as a part of living, thus corrode copper traces away. The largest supplier of gate automation, Centurion, had to make all the sensors in the gates ant proof, which meant fitting them in nearly fully sealed boxes, with only the connector pins showing, and also make the electronics more or less ant unfriendly. Generally opening any gate motor here you will find a lot of white insecticide powder all over the inside, and lots of dead ants as well. Ants, geckos and battery thieves are the most common cause of gate failure aside from brute force to break in.

Think I do not need an ant farm, there are at least a dozen within 20m of me at the moment outdoors, the ones indoors kind of did not like the yummy meals I gave them, in the nice green diner it came in. just have to sprinkle more borax around, summer and cockroach main season is all about to happen, and I want to keep the big ones out of sight unless they are on their backs and kicking. Mosquito season as well, and I am the type that they love, need to buy more citronella oil for the lamp.

[FrankBuss]

Think I do not need an ant farm, there are at least a dozen within 20m of me at the moment outdoors

Sounds like fun In Germany ants are not that often. Found once some in the woods: https://goo.gl/photos/Xd2BzshRVVme1f9L8



but they were on the list of endangered species (they are probably Formica polyctena), so I couldn't take some for my ant farm, and they need winter rest as well, which would be boring.

[polli]

I wanted to start a formicarium, but I read that you have to either find an ant queen, which is difficult (especially since my biology is worse than my electronics), or buy one which is no fun.

I wished there was something in between in terms of difficulty, like finding some really big ant and convincing her she was destined to be the queen or something.

[FrankBuss]

I wanted to start a formicarium, but I read that you have to either find an ant queen, which is difficult (especially since my biology is worse than my electronics), or buy one which is no fun.

Your profile says you live in Antarctica. I guess it is difficult to find ants there. Maybe Sean could send you some, but would require very good packaging for a shipment from South Africa to Antarctica and I'm not sure about customs

In case you live somewhere different in the world with higher population, usually there are local ant keeper groups and you might get a queen for free or little money and tips how to keep them.

[Kjelt]

I am glad the ants have finally left my home.
They can find the kitchen from any extreme small cavity available and then one day you see a procession, a traffic jam of ants going both ways to something they can eat, often opening paper bags and or plastick bags to get to it. Then under the backdoor they dug through the concrete and cement an opening to inside the house under the doorstep where they started to lay their eggs, but unfortunately also all my hometheater wiring was there 
Three years ago i built three meters extra livingroom and outside poored concrete to lay the terrace stones in,  now they are gone at least they now moved just outside the terrace. That is ok for me. I can not believe they are endangered since they survived since the dinosaurs, I think they will outlive humans as a species.

[SeanB]

Here just wait for the spring rains, and there will be queens a plenty, along with the males. Though the more numerous are the termites, where the number of queens and males is in the millions per square kilometer, and where you can have the entire windscreen splattered with the remains in a short drive. The dogs love this snack fest, along with just about every other predator and every bird as well. The birds get so full they cannot fly easily. If you have fish you do not need to buy them food for that day or two, just from the ones that fly indoors, and if it is a pond they will stop eating eventually when they are totally sated.

[mtdoc]

Only indirectly electronics related but I just bought a Husqvarna 562xp chainsaw with a 24" bar.  My trusty Stihl 250 is just not up to the task of bucking out some of the larger trees down on my property.

I almost bought the next model down - the "555" - which has a nice electronics meme model number - but in the end decided to put up another $100 and get a professional saw.

I've been hesitant to buy one of these newer saws with electronically tuned carbs. The Husky "Autotune" and Stihl "M-tronic" systems have been out for a few years now. The long term reliability of electronics is a virbrating, sawdust, dirt, oil and gas exposed saw is suspect IMO. We'll see.

It would be nice if they made the Autotune software available and usable for non-dealers to use the diagnostics and and do firmware updates etc...

Would love to hear if anyone has done any tinkering with these.  I'm sure someone on this forum has the skills to hack into the electronics on these.

[tautech]

@mtdoc
I used to turn spanners on saws for a living some decades ago. That local dealer is still in existence and I have good relations with the son where we discuss the new features quite often over a beer.  We were the 2nd largest Husky dealer in NZ. Been a little time since we had a good chat so I'll get onto finding the latest stuff on them. TBH I haven't heard anything bad about them but the industry's changed heaps in the last decade or two where there are many less crosscutters now as most felling is done with feller/bunchers and processor machines these days. Even on bloody steep country where they are secured by rope to anchors at the top of the steep faces. 

[mtdoc]

Thanks tautech. Any inside info would be welcome.

Here in the Pacific NW of the US.  Chainsaws still dominate for felling trees - even the large logging operations.

But the majority of saws are in use by people putting up firewood.  For me it means bucking the downed trees on my property do I can then split the rounds for firewood.

There's quite a bit online about the new electronically controlled chainsaw carb systems. They've been out for a few years now and I think most of the bugs have been worked out.  For me it's just a matter of wanting that "end user control" and ability to fix my own tools if needed.  There's a Husky dealer in town here but if they ever go belly up I'll have no way to install firmware on a new carb if needed (replacement carbs come without firmware installed).

[polli]

Your profile says you live in Antarctica. I guess it is difficult to find ants there. Maybe Sean could send you some, but would require very good packaging for a shipment from South Africa to Antarctica and I'm not sure about customs

Haha, I live in Italy! It's just that the Antarctica flag looks really cool. I doubt there's anything like an ant group around here unfortunately.

[tautech]

Thanks tautech. Any inside info would be welcome.

Here in the Pacific NW of the US.  Chainsaws still dominate for felling trees - even the large logging operations.

But the majority of saws are in use by people putting up firewood.  For me it means bucking the downed trees on my property do I can then split the rounds for firewood.

There's quite a bit online about the new electronically controlled chainsaw carb systems. They've been out for a few years now and I think most of the bugs have been worked out.  For me it's just a matter of wanting that "end user control" and ability to fix my own tools if needed.  There's a Husky dealer in town here but if they ever go belly up I'll have no way to install firmware on a new carb if needed (replacement carbs come without firmware installed).

Yeah I cut ~10m³/year so I get to use my saws (all Husky) a bit and do some problem tree work on the side  when I've got time. Mine range from 53 to 120cc plus a 88cc unit for each of my boys.....all old school manual carb units. Keeping them all going is like riding a bike...once learnt, never forgotten. 

I'd love one of the new one handled pro units for up-tree work but I'm not sure how much longer I want to do that monkey business rather than let the young and fit guys do it.

PS. The biggest I ever felled was ~7 foot through and nearly all my 36" 3120XP can handle. We (boys and I) spent days blocking it up.

[AF6LJ]

Only indirectly electronics related but I just bought a Husqvarna 562xp chainsaw with a 24" bar.  My trusty Stihl 250 is just not up to the task of bucking out some of the larger trees down on my property.

I almost bought the next model down - the "555" - which has a nice electronics meme model number - but in the end decided to put up another $100 and get a professional saw.

I've been hesitant to buy one of these newer saws with electronically tuned carbs. The Husky "Autotune" and Stihl "M-tronic" systems have been out for a few years now. The long term reliability of electronics is a virbrating, sawdust, dirt, oil and gas exposed saw is suspect IMO. We'll see.

It would be nice if they made the Autotune software available and usable for non-dealers to use the diagnostics and and do firmware updates etc...

Would love to hear if anyone has done any tinkering with these.  I'm sure someone on this forum has the skills to hack into the electronics on these.

Nice PC board repair tool.

[ChrisLX200]

Bought some new flux to try from Amazon - M G Chemicals Flux Paste. Supposed to be as good as Amtech stuff but heck, it's not cheap.

[nanofrog]

Bought some new flux to try from Amazon - M G Chemicals Flux Paste. Supposed to be as good as Amtech stuff but heck, it's not cheap.

FWIW, I find MG Chemicals to be really good stuff.  Specifically, their 835 RA liquid formulation (50% solids according to its specs.). 

That said, despite it's available in small quantities (i.e. 100ml bottles +), MG Chemicals' 835 (RA) isn't my favorite. t's readily available in small quantities and it works  very well IME.  My favorites are from Kester, but past disposable pens, which are exceptionally expensive  for the amount/volume, it's quite expensive. Specifically, Kester's smallest size past disposable pens = 1 gal. (and goes up quickly from there; 1 gal. bottles/jugs to drums in short order). Regarding  RA = 1544, RMA = 186 or 186-18 (latter = lower solids @ 18%, which is easier to clean).

In terms of paste/gel, I'm partial to Kester RF-741 (comes in 30g syringe tubes; just need a plunger or dispensing gun to use it).

Do note this is from a US/CAN perspective (pricing & availability).