What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Mr. Scram]

Shuko and the UK plugs are all antiques from the early 20th century. They should be updated to 21th century 
For my new projects and things I want to update I have switched over to the Wieland GTS18 system, smaller, asymetrical higher voltage and amperage resistance 

They seem to do the job fairly well. Don't forget that a mind blowing number of people is working with 230V on a daily basis with no or minimal training and that people getting hurt is incredibly rare. That's a testament to the effectiveness of either.

[AF6LJ]

All of this reinventing the power plug seems to me to be, both overkill and all to do about next to nothing. Granted it does keep engineers and designers employed, but in the end does it really serve a tangible purpose??

The US un-grounded plug has been with us (here in the states) since the beginning of electrification of homes and businesses. The polarized plug was an improvement, after that the three wire plug was the logical end of that evolution.

Limiting the exposed contact aria, could be an improvement except for the design of the socket contacts which wipe the sides of the plug prongs providing a self cleaning action.

There comes a point when reinventing the plug just drives up the cost of an appliance.

[ChrisLX200]

Arrived this morning - a TTi 1604 bought for £62 on the 'bay. Dead chuffed, and my dog was so excited it almost woke up...

[Specmaster]

So it was you who outbid me on this before I could make another bid, the auction finished 
I did wonder if the winner was a member or not, now I know 

[cdev]

Thats a very elegant, clean looking bench meter, as they go.

Arrived this morning - a TTi 1604 bought for £62 on the 'bay. Dead chuffed, and my dog was so excited it almost woke up...

[cdev]

One plus with the Chinese plug with ground on top, that prevents any thin conductive object or wire falling from above from potentially bridging the two conductors and starting a fire.

As its likely to make contact with the ground first.

Same in Australia, although we go two steps further:

1/ It's physically impossible to insert a non-earthed Plug in "the wrong way" as the active and neutral pins are angled
2/ We have Power switches on all power points - it's been mandatory since forever



iirc the chinese use the same socket & plug as we do but rotated 180 degrees for some inexplicable reason. 

[ChrisLX200]

Quote from: Specmaster on Today at 12:28:53 AM

So it was you who outbid me on this before I could make another bid, the auction finished 
I did wonder if the winner was a member or not, now I know 


Oops - Sorry     I didn't own a bench DMM and was in the market for something to tide me over. I lost out on the last 3 or 4 I bid on recently so was pleased to get this one. I doubt it will be the last one I buy though and will upgrade when I find something better (at reasonable cost).

Caused me to re-organise my tiny bench area yet again to to make room for it. I don't like stacking stuff so high but I have no option.

[Specmaster]

Oops - Sorry     I didn't own a bench DMM and was in the market for something to tide me over. I lost out on the last 3 or 4 I bid on recently so was pleased to get this one. I doubt it will be the last one I buy though and will upgrade when I find something better (at reasonable cost).

Caused me to re-organise my tiny bench area yet again to to make room for it. I don't like stacking stuff so high but I have no option.

Haha, you'll be buying a few more then to catch me up, currently I have 6 bench meters.  TBH I never expected to win that one seeing as I put a maximum cheeky bid of £60 on because it is still currently being sold new for £261 from CPC and I was somewhat surprised to see that it went for so little. I expect that you had bid far higher for it than what you won it for, so fair play to you, you really grabbed a bargain there.

Looking at your stack there, you have some lovely kit already, I'm envious of that stack 

[bitseeker]

Lol, I was waiting for a "you guy's are upside down" joke.

Maybe it only happens in Australia or I just had bad timing because when I was last in New Zealand, everything seemed pretty normal as compared with the northern hemisphere. I was hoping for some good stories to tell if/when I returned.

[djos]

Lol, I was waiting for a "you guy's are upside down" joke.

Maybe it only happens in Australia or I just had bad timing because when I was last in New Zealand, everything seemed pretty normal as compared with the northern hemisphere. I was hoping for some good stories to tell if/when I returned.

 

Just watch out for our southern hemisphere toilets flushing counter clockwise, those things are deadly! 

[ChrisLX200]

Quote from: Specmaster on Today at 04:58:50 AM>Quote from: ChrisLX200 on Today at 04:33:42 AM

Oops - Sorry     I didn't own a bench DMM and was in the market for something to tide me over. I lost out on the last 3 or 4 I bid on recently so was pleased to get this one. I doubt it will be the last one I buy though and will upgrade when I find something better (at reasonable cost).

Caused me to re-organise my tiny bench area yet again to to make room for it. I don't like stacking stuff so high but I have no option.

Haha, you'll be buying a few more then to catch me up, currently I have 6 bench meters.  TBH I never expected to win that one seeing as I put a maximum cheeky bid of £60 on because it is still currently being sold new for £261 from CPC and I was somewhat surprised to see that it went for so little. I expect that you had bid far higher for it than what you won it for, so fair play to you, you really grabbed a bargain there.

Looking at your stack there, you have some lovely kit already, I'm envious of that stack 



I was really looking for a 34401A and missed out by £10 last week   I only need 1 accurate bench DMM for times when I need a reference and apart from that I make do with the hand-helds for most other work. There are some stupid asking prices around, look at the stuff from top_quality_tools on ebay (they want something like £350 for that TTi DMM IIRC...!) So working out what is actually good buying price is tricky. I bid £70 for that one.

I would like an analog 'scope to replace the 465B I had that exploded a few years ago, and keep looking at the HP54520A. Not sure how good they are.

[Specmaster]

Yes I agree, must be nuts to £350 for something that normally sells £261 or less from RS when they have in stock. I don't think that will be available much longer now, they have newer models with LCD screens now.

Wow that's a big jump up you're looking at in scopes from 100Mhz to 500Mhz, do you really need that speed?

I've just restored a lovely HP 1740A and now working on another 100Mhz scope that looks like it just came from the factory almost, a Goldstar OS - 9100D.

[tooki]

Today is a public holiday here in Germany to commemorate protestant reformation initiated by Martin Luther 500 years ago.

Also a good opportunity to pimp my lab bench with a new antistatic mat:



It's a complete set. The mat is made of silicone that hopefully will lie totally flat on my bench.
That's something my current mat never did neither is it heat proof. 
It shows that with many solder marks burned deeply in its surface. 

Silicone antistatic mat? Where’d you find that? Can you share a link?

Note that a lot of German wall sockets are reversible. There is no "wired incorrectly", either way is correct, though many will be wired a certain way regardless.

Not “a lot”. All. Germany’s Schuko outlet is always reversible.

Note that a lot of German wall sockets are reversible. There is no "wired incorrectly", either way is correct, though many will be wired a certain way regardless.

Yes I know, but I think the same is also true of the USA, but in the case of 3 pin plugs which have to be used in order to connect the earth cable, then these plugs are not reversible so surely 2 pin plugs are only to be fitted to double insulated loads, such as electric razors and hair dryers etc??

Definitely not true of the USA. USA has strict requirements for wiring, because it’s normal for ground and neutral to be bonded. USA also commonly uses polarized ungrounded plugs.

iirc the chinese use the same socket & plug as we do but rotated 180 degrees for some inexplicable reason. 

It’s not a facepalm. cdev is absolutely right:

One plus with the Chinese plug with ground on top, that prevents any thin conductive object or wire falling from above from potentially bridging the two conductors and starting a fire.

As its likely to make contact with the ground first.

Note that the NEMA standards in North America also specify that ground should be on top (or if the outlet is mounted sideways, with neutral up) for precisely this reason. Seems to be often ignored, though, since people are kind of accustomed to the surprised smiley face orientation.

Of course, if NEMA would just finally require sleeved pins, like UK, Europlug, AUS, etc already do, that particular risk would be substantially mitigated, as well as reducing the risk of accidental contact when unplugging a plug.

[nanofrog]

Note that the NEMA standards in North America also specify that ground should be on top (or if the outlet is mounted sideways, with neutral up) for precisely this reason. Seems to be often ignored, though, since people are kind of accustomed to the surprised smiley face orientation.

The ground pin is up for commercial installations, while it's on the bottom for residential installations (surprised smiley as you call it).

[vk6zgo]

One plus with the Chinese plug with ground on top, that prevents any thin conductive object or wire falling from above from potentially bridging the two conductors and starting a fire.

As its likely to make contact with the ground first.

Same in Australia, although we go two steps further:


1/ It's physically impossible to insert a non-earthed Plug in "the wrong way" as the active and neutral pins are angled
2/ We have Power switches on all power points - it's been mandatory since forever



iirc the chinese use the same socket & plug as we do but rotated 180 degrees for some inexplicable reason. 

I've actually had that happen to me.
To do some job ( I forget what it was now), we used lengths of piano wire.
As they were hard to store, they ended up on the shelf at the rear of the workbench.
One day, one fell down, just as suggested, except that it only landed on the Active pin, so there was no fire,but the end of the piano wire touched my arm.

My reaction was to jerk my arm away, which, as the wire was so light & springy, broke the connection.

This can't happen with more modern versions of these plugs, as they are insulated for the first cm or so.

[Mr. Scram]

Not “a lot”. All. Germany’s Schuko outlet is always reversible.

Not everything is a Schuko.

[Helix70]

I picked up this HP 5315A 100Mhz Universal Counter on eBay. It came in the original HP box with correct foam spacers, original delivery docket, manual still in shrink wrap, and manual updating changes (errata). It does not look it has ever been out of the box, it is mint.

Of course I took it apart.

It didn't get a single bid, I was originally too late, so I messaged the seller and he offered it to me for $100.

[woody]

A bunch of LED heatsinks arrived today.

[tooki]

Not “a lot”. All. Germany’s Schuko outlet is always reversible.

Not everything is a Schuko.

Source?

We are talking about ordinary household/office sockets here, not industrial outlets. There might be some ancient obsolete sockets in some really old installations, but even upon searching, I haven't been able to find any kind of regular outlet available in Germany now that isn't a Schuko. (For high-power applications, the industrial CEE outlets seem to be used.)

This page seems to agree with me: it says "We went to the effort to depict all the plugs and matching sockets that are common in Germany".

http://drehstromnetz.de/stecker.html

[Kjelt]

A bunch of LED heatsinks arrived today.

Are there still modern leds with 100lm/W or more that can be used with these?

[Kjelt]

Container find: €200+ Evaluation Board from ST: STM3240G-EVAL 
http://uk.farnell.com/stmicroelectronics/stm3240g-eval/stm32-07-i2c-evaluation-board/dp/2062663 

[woody]

Are there still modern leds with 100lm/W or more that can be used with these?

Don't know about modern. I do know that I use 'm with

www.aliexpress.com/item/100pcs-a-lot-1W-White-CREE-Real-enough-1W-white-High-Power-LED-lamp-Beads-LED/32721297629.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.bbNbFd

Supposedly 100-120lm/W. Ordered 100pcs for €3,32, got 200 pcs. That came to €0,0166 / pc.

The heatsink in free air heats up to 53 degrees (20 ambient). Nice enough to light up the occasional pumpkin without setting fire to it

[rdl]

Nice score.

I picked up this HP 5315A 100Mhz Universal Counter on eBay. It came in the original HP box with correct foam spacers, original delivery docket, manual still in shrink wrap, and manual updating changes (errata). It does not look it has ever been out of the box, it is mint.

Of course I took it apart.

It didn't get a single bid, I was originally too late, so I messaged the seller and he offered it to me for $100.

[Kjelt]

Are there still modern leds with 100lm/W or more that can be used with these?

Don't know about modern. I do know that I use 'm with

www.aliexpress.com/item/100pcs-a-lot-1W-White-CREE-Real-enough-1W-white-High-Power-LED-lamp-Beads-LED/32721297629.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.bbNbFd

Supposedly 100-120lm/W. Ordered 100pcs for €3,32, got 200 pcs. That came to €0,0166 / pc.

The heatsink in free air heats up to 53 degrees (20 ambient). Nice enough to light up the occasional pumpkin without setting fire to it

For that price they can't be Cree ir it is a bad batch or surplus. Look at feet of the led there should be a marking. Anyway if they work and keep on working you can make some nice streetlantern with them 

[URI]

Today is a public holiday here in Germany to commemorate protestant reformation initiated by Martin Luther 500 years ago.

Also a good opportunity to pimp my lab bench with a new antistatic mat:



It's a complete set. The mat is made of silicone that hopefully will lie totally flat on my bench.
That's something my current mat never did neither is it heat proof. 
It shows that with many solder marks burned deeply in its surface. 

Silicone antistatic mat? Where’d you find that? Can you share a link?

Sure: 
It's a mat of an Italian company, ELME.
You can find it on their web page presented in different languages, e.g. auf deutsch or in english.
The description can be found there too, but for mats by roll auf deutsch or in english.

I ordered mine from TME Electronic Components.
They also provide a swiss version of their web site. 
Search for "157kit" on their web site and as the result you'll get the different ELME ESD mats they offer.