What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[ChristofferB]

"It doesn't clearly detect the Potassium in a banana"

Get a bottle of 100% "no salt" substitute for people on a low salt diet at the grocery store. The potassium 40 in that lights up my NaI detector very well with the 1.46MeV gamma.

I tried the "lite salt" stuff, presumably 50% NaCl and 50% KCl and was not able to detect a clear change in count rate.
I didn't put it on a counter and take a couple minute count.  I might try that after I get the thing into a more packaged form.

Jon

I've been collecting gear for almost this exact setup for a while!

I was able to manually do gamma spectroscopy with a single-channel analyzer and a lot of spare time.

I recently got both Ortec counters, their RS232/GPIB interface, the single-channel analyzer, a 7-decade scaler and a Canberra delay amplifier for way too much, but I'm having too much fun to care!

The attached spectrum is from around 100g potassium carbonate. I also did a video on it, but my setup has evolved quite a bit since.

You really should be able to see a count rate difference, even with a normal geiger counter for a decent potassium source, though!

[richnormand]

@ChristofferB
see reply #9974 on: April 17, 2020, 10:44:19 pm in this thread for the expected Geiger counter signal and a NaI detector MCA response.
Your SCA curve is pretty much on the nose Have you considered writing a program to automate the process since you mentionned having RS232 and GPIB available?

[djos]

A DS218+ plus some WD Harddrives to put into it. Up to now I have been sharing files via Win10 from an external USB drive, but due to unreliability and the fact that it stops working every time Win10 updates anything I've finally decided to get a NAS.

McBryce.

Nice, I've got the older DS213J with a pair of 6TB WD reds in JBOD - it runs my IP Camera System via Synologies Surveillance Station and serves as an iSCSI Target for my HP N36L Microserver (Windows Server 2012 R2 Backup's).

[McBryce]

A DS218+ plus some WD Harddrives to put into it. Up to now I have been sharing files via Win10 from an external USB drive, but due to unreliability and the fact that it stops working every time Win10 updates anything I've finally decided to get a NAS.

McBryce.

Nice, I've got the older DS213J with a pair of 6TB WD reds in JBOD - it runs my IP Camera System via Synologies Surveillance Station and serves as an iSCSI Target for my HP N36L Microserver (Windows Server 2012 R2 Backup's).

After a few days of playing about with it, I'm happy with the Hardware, but the software could be a lot better. Can anyone tell me if there's a simple way of refreshing the index for the music ctation, without having to go 7 levels into the admin settings??

McBryce.

[djos]

I'd suggest using Plex as the media/music Server on your Synology - it's a much better solution.

[McBryce]

I did consider that, but someone told me it needs clients at the other end and my TV (Panasonic) doesn't have Plex or any way of installing it.

Edit: Just checked it out. It would work on one of the TV's but Plex involves setting up accounts etc, all I want is to stream around the house.

McBryce.

[djos]

I did consider that, but someone told me it needs clients at the other end and my TV (Panasonic) doesn't have Plex or any way of installing it.

McBryce.

It has a web client plus DNLA server built-in too.

I have a Panasonic TV too and the Plex client is so old I use an Xbox One S as my main media player.

[McBryce]

Yeah, just read up on it. It looks good, but I don't want something that involves setting up yet another online account, when all I want is a piece of software that works within my home.

McBryce.

[djos]

Fair enough.

[McBryce]

Just read up some more. suposedly there is a way of using Plex without an account. I'll give it a go... Just installed it on the DS218+ and will try it out once it has indexed the database (so probably tomorrow).

McBryce.

[djos]

Just read up some more. suposedly there is a way of using Plex without an account. I'll give it a go... Just installed it on the DS218+ and will try it out once it has indexed the database (so probably tomorrow).

McBryce.

I have a lifetime subscription so that has never been an issue for me - for us it's well worth it, just makes media playback and management so easy. My favorite feature, and why I dropped Kodi for it (some years ago), is the media playback tracking - I can start watching something in my study and then resume watching it in my lounge or on my iPad. 

[Black Phoenix]

Well big haul today:
 - Rotring Triangular Ruler S0220721 1:500;
 - 1 bag of Merries S and 2 bags of Merries M diapers (the kid sh#ts a lot!!! );
 - 2.5m by 4m grey photography backdrop (I do photography as a hobby and there was a chance of making some money with portraits, so why not try?);
 - Pentel Graphgear 1000 Mechanical Pencil .7 (to make the pair with the Ballpoint .7 that I already own since 2013 - discontinued);
 - TFZ T2 Galaxy IEM plus TFZ My Love IEM for my SO (Good V-Shape IEMs that rival brands as Shure/Shennheiser/AKG/Westone plus the TFZ My Love were just more 99RMB to the total price because of a promotion they have. I also got free a hoodie from the brand. That way my K845BT can stay at home);
 - Earpads for my old Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear that I gave to my wife (the rubber that fits them cracked and the original ones are kaput. They grey from the new ones is a lighter one compared with the original ones, but the sound signature is the same as the official ones that Sennheiser don't sell anymore)
 - Leatherette headband for my AKG K845BT (disintegrated as the original pads with the use. Pads already exchanged for the Brainwavz Hybrid);
 - Kokuyo Urban Monochrome B5 Binder (needed an extra one other than the Campus I already own).

[nctnico]

I bought a holder for a mobile phone on my bycicle. I intend/hope to use it for navigation. I'm in need to try new routes.

[Nominal Animal]

Ordered a 300mm × 100mm × 10mm block of 6063 aluminium.  Shipping and handling was three times the price of the material itself .

[Cubdriver]

Ordered a 300mm × 100mm × 10mm block of 6063 aluminium.  Shipping and handling was three times the price of the material itself .

Ouch!  That hurts...  Shipping is usually what makes me spend too much, especially if it will otherwise be more than the cost of what I need.  Figure "Might as well get some more things if I'm getting whacked for shipping" and proceed to load up.

-Pat

[thm_w]

Ordered a 300mm × 100mm × 10mm block of 6063 aluminium.  Shipping and handling was three times the price of the material itself .

No local metal suppliers? Its a normal extruded sheet right.

[Nominal Animal]

Ordered a 300mm × 100mm × 10mm block of 6063 aluminium.  Shipping and handling was three times the price of the material itself .

No local metal suppliers? Its a normal extruded sheet right.

Bog-standard 300mm cut from a 6m long EN AW-6063 T6 100mm×10mm extrusion (about 12" of 4"×3/8"), yes.  No, I know of no local metal suppliers in or near Helsinki, that would bother to sell such offcuts to hobbyists like me.  Hafta order from Oulu..  but all told, it was under 20€ (about 21 USD) total, so I'm not complaining too much.

[rsjsouza]

New in box dirt cheap in the local market: an Amprobe AM530. Never had a meter from this reputable brand.

[maginnovision]

Finally got a dc adapter set and some USB 3 extension cables. Not shown: powered USB 3 hub.

[beanflying]

Ordered a 300mm × 100mm × 10mm block of 6063 aluminium.  Shipping and handling was three times the price of the material itself .

10000 Posts and 1.5 million vicarious views of other peoples purchases....
Clearly we like to watch 

[Mr.B]

Clearly we like to watch 

Absolutely.
More than three quarters of my equipment and tool purchases over the last 12 months can be blamed attributed to this thread.

[IDEngineer]

Not directly electronic, but...

A 3/8in drive digital torque-angle wrench with a range of 5-100 ft-lbs. Does tracking, peak hold, 10 memories, presets for torque and/or angles, converts to all metric and imperial units, etc. We're doing a bunch of development using various kinds of motors to drive various kinds of loads and in some cases (particularly hydraulics), knowing the load's torque is extremely important. Everyone's existing torque wrenches went up to 250+ ft-lbs because they bought them for working on vehicles, but we're dealing with much smaller values and most torque wrenches aren't accurate in the bottom 20% of their range.

I personally already owned a very small, torsion bar style 1/4in drive torque wrench that reads in in-lbs but its range was too low. Also, difficult to read accurate values from their scale-and-needle "displays".

I've never before seen a torque wrench that also measures angles of rotation. Apparently some fasteners are tightened that way. You set them to a certain position or a certain torque, and then rotate them a prescribed number of degrees past that point. Very interesting.

[Nominal Animal]

I didn't realize I had hit the 10,000th post in this thread!

More than three quarters of my equipment and tool purchases over the last 12 months can be blamed attributed to this thread.

This thread, and Bad Obsession Motorsport for me.  I hope Nik would be proud: I needed this material for a bracket.  (I need the 10mm thickness for a 3mm grub screw.  No mill, you see.)

I am seriously hankering for a Proxxon MF 70 micro mill.  I could do so many brackets, heatsinks and custom enclosure modifications, and brackets for my Linux SBCs and microcontroller projects (Teensy 4.0 overclocking heatsink maybe?).  Only, getting one would run me dry (I'm broke), and then get me evicted due to noise, as I live in an apartment.  Eh, might have to risk it: I don't like my neighbors much anyway.

[tautech]

I've never before seen a torque wrench that also measures angles of rotation. Apparently some fasteners are tightened that way. You set them to a certain position or a certain torque, and then rotate them a prescribed number of degrees past that point. Very interesting.

Not at all uncommon in modern mechanical equipment. Cylinder head bolts are often single use and the degrees of rotation beyond a specified torque is to apply the correct amount of bolt 'stretch' tension.

[maginnovision]

It's mostly due to aluminum being used more. I've never bothered buying one but I used a "manual" angle gauge with my 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" torque wrenches. Even the top of the line wrenches are cheap now. My 3/8" and 1/2" were about $1200 when I bought them, some of the first digital snap-on wrenches..