What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[pardo-bsso]

Today the postman brought me an old Rohde & Schwarz dummy load.
Plaque says:

UHF-Belastungswidertand
UHF-LOAD RESISTOR
50 100w 0-600MHz
Type RD 010/50 FNrF 1618/121

Measures 51 ohms at dc, probably will be spot on after cleaning the connector.
Does anyone recognize it? My search engine fu is failing me at the moment.
I don't want to replace it so I'll probably end up turning an adapter.


Edit: the connector is a Dezifix B short.

[rsjsouza]

A 1987-built Transmation Transmitter-Simulator Model 1027 - a calibrator for 4~20mA current loops. Also, a 250Ω / 0.03% resistor for testing/cal.



Still quite accurate after so many years of operation - it had two ancient (no exp date) and dead 9V Duracell batteries on it, but fortunately no leakage has happened (batteries were so much better back then. 

[armandine2]

putting battery and micrometer together - a purchase if not today would be to get a replacement battery for my Micro 2000

[TMM]

Less what I bought today and more what I bought approx 10 years ago and let gather dust ever since  . A basket case of a Tek 536 scope that I paid AU$70 (USD$50) for with CA, T, G and B plugins. Today that would be a good deal just for the tubes alone.

Looked like it had sat for decades in someones moist garage gathering rust and dust, then someone tried to turn it on resulting in a carbon tracking extravaganza in most of the powersupply circuits  . It's also very high hours, or someone robbed it for tubes at some point and someone else restuffed it as the tubes are of all sorts - Aussie, American, British, European.
 After cleaning, grinding away all carbon tracking on the ceramic strips, cleaning relay contacts, rebuilding the fan, replacement of all electrolytics (all leaking >1mA after 30 mins on my cap tester so out they go), replacement of a couple of cooked 6080 tubes and some burnt resistors I got to the point of plugging it in to my dim bulb tester (with 700W of bulbs including the heat lamps out of my bathroom  ) and pleasingly it didn't turn into a giant carbon arc. Running it straight off mains the 'low voltage' supplies (-150, +100, +225, +350V) are solid. The type CA plugin just rails the vertical amplifier for some reason (maybe just needs a cal?) and the CRT powersupply is weak and gets continually weaker as it runs until the trace disappears completely (-800V rail starts strong and quickly droops to -400V, then I cut the power as I don't want to fry anything unnecessarily). Maybe high voltage caps, maybe rectifier tubes, or maybe the CRT tube is being driven such that the cathode current runs away, we'll find out soon enough.  At least the unobtainium parts (power trafo and CRT) appear to be ok.

[capt bullshot]

Less what I bought today and more what I bought approx 10 years ago and let gather dust ever since  . A basket case of a Tek 536 scope that I paid AU$70 (USD$50) for with CA, T, G and B plugins.
...

You might want to join the TEA folks:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/

[jonpaul]

€5 at Pigall, neighborhood market in Paris Sunday

1980s avaition computer like US E-6B but much more developed by a UK manufacturer

A pilot friend comments he had not used an E6-B type in 40 years!

Bon journée

Jon

[RAPo]

Got me a testo 760-2 and a Wavetek 180 sweeper.

[Ground_Loop]

Less what I bought today and more what I bought approx 10 years ago and let gather dust ever since  . A basket case of a Tek 536 scope that I paid AU$70 (USD$50) for with CA, T, G and B plugins. Today that would be a good deal just for the tubes alone.

Makes me want to tune this old monster up.

[purfield]

I bought a Mantis Elite with 10X objective on eBay for $800!

[DeanA]

I bought a Mantis Elite with 10X objective on eBay for $800!

Jealous

[TMM]

Less what I bought today and more what I bought approx 10 years ago and let gather dust ever since  . A basket case of a Tek 536 scope that I paid AU$70 (USD$50) for with CA, T, G and B plugins. Today that would be a good deal just for the tubes alone.

Makes me want to tune this old monster up.

(Attachment Link)

I'd love to get my hands on one of those (or a 585 or 575). Any 500 series Tek is rare as rocking horse you-know-what here in Australia.

[gamalot]

Bought 20 cheap 18500 Li-ion batteries from eBay.

[mclute0]

I ordered this ARM STM32F103 board on discount from Newark/Farnell for less than $4.00USD. Looks like they have some still available. Was originally $34USD, looks like they were not too popular, but at the current price seem like a steal, unless they are broke.... and I hear some people don't much like Newark....

https://www.newark.com/embest/embedded-pi/i-o-bridge-rpi-arduino-arm/dp/67W2379

[ledtester]

My Newark story...

Practically a year ago I placed a largish order with Newark/Farnell and in it I happen to include an order for 5 SOT-23 P-channel MOSFETS that happened not to be in stock. I was trying to be careful to only order in stock items but I must have flubbed on this one part.

Newark dutifully split the order and promptly shipped the in stock items.

Just today I received an envelope with... those 5 P-channel MOSFETS I had ordered 11 months ago.

I'm actually very impressed since they didn't charge me any extra shipping or a processing fee. I'm sure they didn't make any money on that line item.

[beanflying]

micrometre   -mechanical engineering tool to know how thick something is in millimeters .mm

Aspirational blingy bits  Granite Surface plate, 123 Blocks, Dial Test indicator and stand, Good Quality square, Micrometers, Verniers which are all needed to inspect today's arrival a cheapy 63mm Vice 

Actually fairly close to square on the main one piece body, the loose jaw has a minor issue on one side face but the bits that matter and the rest of it are square and match up. eBay auction: #163587323413

[mclute0]

I ordered this ARM STM32F103 board on discount from Newark/Farnell for less than $4.00USD. Looks like they have some still available. Was originally $34USD, looks like they were not too popular, but at the current price seem like a steal, unless they are broke.... and I hear some people don't much like Newark....

https://www.newark.com/embest/embedded-pi/i-o-bridge-rpi-arduino-arm/dp/67W2379

Arrived today, here is a pic of what I received for $3.19usd and since I ordered $150usd components it was free shipping.

[impetus_maximus]

been wanting a HOPI power meter for a long time. however i wanted one that was more accurate at lower current levels <500mA.
i've seen them in the past, but when i was ready to pull the trigger i could only find the 20A model.

bought a ZHURUI PR10 (PR10-E) since it  got a good review from HKJ
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/testreview-of-zhurui-power-recorder-pr10/
http://lygte-info.dk/review/Power%20Zhurui%20Power%20Recorder%20PR10%20UK.html


seems able to read below 500mA (although the current should read 0.002A no? [edit] seems power factor affects how Watts are calculated)


one major gripe is the giant 'Real Time Parameter' along the top of the screen.
serves two purposes... takes up screen space that could have made the readings larger... and two insults my intelligence. 
minor problem is that the clock runs fast. a little over a minute fast in a couple of weeks. i really need to check exactly what % it's off.
i'm not using the relay/timer function so it's not a problem for me.

i love that i can set a current limit to have the relay disable the outlet should it go above that. 
also love that i can set the state of the plug when powered up. on, off, or last state.

it's funny that Clive bought a 0.0005A-3A meter (AnTai ATX.9801+) right after i received this.
the auto ranging of the PR10 i think is more flexible. not sure which screen is worse for video though.
the TFT screen of the PR10 or the flickery multiplexing of the HOPI/AnTai 

[richnormand]

I ordered this ARM STM32F103 board on discount from Newark/Farnell for less than $4.00USD. Looks like they have some still available. Was originally $34USD, looks like they were not too popular, but at the current price seem like a steal, unless they are broke.... and I hear some people don't much like Newark....

https://www.newark.com/embest/embedded-pi/i-o-bridge-rpi-arduino-arm/dp/67W2379

Arrived today, here is a pic of what I received for $3.19usd and since I ordered $150usd components it was free shipping.

Got one too as it looked interesting for the price.
However all the links for software and such seem dead in the manual/technical notes from Newark.
Even with the disparition of coocox.org I would have though that it might be available somewhere.
Some coocox software bits still seem to be available on the ST site though.

[beanflying]

I adopted an Orphan while on the way to go food and booze shopping today. 

Only crashed once into the bed during the initial playing then put in a corner to gather dust for a year never to be powered up again Around 50% new price with a 4th axis kit and 10km from home. 6090 Bed and 1.5kW spindle.

Likely this will finish up as the basis for a small Plasma Table rather than a Router as I already own a larger one. Time for a Shack Extension

[Ed.Kloonk]

How do you find this stuff?

[beanflying]

Evilbay, Gumtree and good timing  Completely BS Luck on the Lathe for timing as the seller had 25+ phone messages about it after me before he could pull the add down

[tautech]

Jam and Beans don't sound like a good pairing but maybe they are ? 

[RAPo]

An old u4324.

[RAPo]

an u4324

[mclute0]

I ordered this ARM STM32F103 board on discount from Newark/Farnell for less than $4.00USD. Looks like they have some still available. Was originally $34USD, looks like they were not too popular, but at the current price seem like a steal, unless they are broke.... and I hear some people don't much like Newark....

https://www.newark.com/embest/embedded-pi/i-o-bridge-rpi-arduino-arm/dp/67W2379

Arrived today, here is a pic of what I received for $3.19usd and since I ordered $150usd components it was free shipping.

Got one too as it looked interesting for the price.
However all the links for software and such seem dead in the manual/technical notes from Newark.
Even with the disparition of coocox.org I would have though that it might be available somewhere.
Some coocox software bits still seem to be available on the ST site though.

I got it working directly with STM32CUBE. Just need to download the MCU support package.

https://www.st.com/en/ecosystems/stm32cube.html

STM had a link to the CooCox IDE but it is deprecated in favor of STMCUBE.

https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/coide.html

There are libs available on git..

https://github.com/coocox/embeddedpi/tree/master/lib

The documentation on the board including schematic is here..

https://community.element14.com/products/devtools/product-pages/w/documents/21091/a-triple-play-platform-for-raspberry-pi-arduino-and-32-bit-embedded-arm



My biggest gripe is I did not find a specific USB driver, but it works great with an STLinkV2 programmer.

It has an SWD/jtag interface so I suspect it will work fine with most any ide that supports STLink SWD/jtag and that cortex chip, like Microsoft Code. (looks like to enable jtag a solder jumper needs to be enabled, see the manual)

I ordered three more since even de-soldering all the hardware is worth more than $3.14usd and I need to order some AE Caps anyway.

...and at 75mhz with 128kb flash it is a great option for general projects, even if it is a bit old, IMHO.

Just got some avr128db28 chips I ordered on that same order that shipped UPS from the UK. I know that Newark has a lot of issues around orders & shipping during their merger but they seemed to have worked that all out now.

I love how they are discounting 'old' inventory and make it easy to see on the search pages. Their prices are beating Future 80%+ of the time by a good margin and free shipping over $150 with $9.99 fixed under that. They are doing some things right for a change. They do seem to like most places and are wasting money on their shipping packaging, but that is ever going to be an easy thing to do.