What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[bitseeker]

I went completely bananas at the supermarket and filled the lolly jar with butterscotch, barley sugar and lemon sherbets.   

Sweet!

[Falkra]

No banana plugs ?

[DTJ]

Those Coles bananas actually taste OK, not made in china either.

You should check out the Coles $2/bag choc coated peanuts as well (also not made in china).

[VK5RC]

@M-Snickers   Remember Glucose is the true brain food!

[dvdouden]

Office decoration: a shot of a Z80 die (by zeptobars) printed as a 100 x 100 cm poster. Total magnification is 200+ish. 

[Richard Crowley]

Office decoration: a shot of a Z80 die (by zeptobars) printed as a 100 x 100 cm poster. Total magnification is 200+ish. 

We once printed out a nice full-color composite die plot of an early Pentium at something like 1000x(?).  We had to clear out a large section of the cafeteria to lay all the strips of paper out and tape them together.  And even with a plot 30ft / 10m square, the transistors were maybe 1-2 pixels and indistinguishable.  And I believe that was even the "shrink" ("tick" of tick-tock) version of the product.

[slicendice]

LOL, awesome! Maybe I will make some printouts too and make some wallpaper out of it! Wonder what my wife would think of that.  All CPU history printed on our walls

[Richard Crowley]

They are doing exactly that at the office. Wallpapering with large die photos and mask plots.  It is quite attractive (at least to the high-tech audience here).  I would post some pictures, but cameras are forbidden on the entire campus.

[nctnico]

They are doing exactly that at the office. Wallpapering with large die photos and mask plots.  It is quite attractive (at least to the high-tech audience here).  I would post some pictures, but cameras are forbidden on the entire campus.

Sounds cool. Perhaps the interior decorators have some photos or samples for future referrals you could post or link to.

[TheSteve]

I'd like to see the die image on canvas, then pulled tight into a frame by pieces of thick black rope in place of the bond wires.

[Richard Crowley]

We don't use bond wires anymore. We use "flip-chip" or C4 (controlled collapse chip connection).  Way too many pins these days to use that last-century connection method.

[6581]

EC2, EC3, EC5, MT30, MT60, HXT 4mm connectors and banana jacks. For those "future needs" that may never arise. But as it takes many moons to arrive from another side of the planet, you'll never know if these are just what I need when they appear in a smelly grey plastic bag.

As Mitch Hedberg (R.I.P.) said about oven potatoes, they take so long to make that sometimes you just throw couple in the oven - by the time they're done... :-)

[DTJ]

Hi 6581, would you mind telling me where you got the grey/red banana binding posts? A link?
How is the price and quality?

I buy quite a few and I'm paying waaaay too much!

Thanks.

[6581]

€8,70 for ten pieces, including shipping. Don't know about quality until they arrive.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/10x-30A-High-Current-M5-4mm-Female-Banana-Jack-Socket-Test-Binding-Post-Welding-Plug-Connector/1955319_32746440982.html

[tkuhmone]

Camera gear - XL1 -> this is my last addition... To be precise, I got it for free. It is my first video camera and I will be using it to practise video documentation (recording, editing) of my projects and for general use. Video resolution cannot be compared to requirements nowadays - it will serve the purpose well on me for the moment 
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/camcorders/support-professional-camcorders/xl1

[macboy]

€8,70 for ten pieces, including shipping. Don't know about quality until they arrive.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/10x-30A-High-Current-M5-4mm-Female-Banana-Jack-Socket-Test-Binding-Post-Welding-Plug-Connector/1955319_32746440982.html

Those look like a reasonably close match to HP/Agilent binding posts at a tiny fraction of OEM cost. Thanks for the link.

[bitseeker]

€8,70 for ten pieces, including shipping. Don't know about quality until they arrive.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/10x-30A-High-Current-M5-4mm-Female-Banana-Jack-Socket-Test-Binding-Post-Welding-Plug-Connector/1955319_32746440982.html

I hope you'll post your experience with them. From my recollection, they don't have holes in the posts for bare wire, if that's important for your uses, but are otherwise a good alternative to much pricier alternatives.

[cheeseit]

20kg of components for €134. 23200 IC's, about 1700 THT and the rest SMD, and 38 x 500 or 1000 pcs. PRC201 series SMD resistors (Philips), 0R33-1M 1218 1W 5%. 7200 pcs. in 133 types from the 74HC series, 6200 pcs. in 127 types from the 74HCT series and 5600 pcs. in 92 types from the HEF4000 series. Also a bunch of tubes of jellybean stuff, tubes of machined sockets and some specialty stuff. All in all 481 different types of IC's, all in labeled tubes. I've only checked a few handfuls, mostly Maxim, on Mouser etc. and some sells for €8-10 a piece in small quantities.
Comes from a telecommunication provider that were once a national monopoly, I'm guessing the R&D department. Mid to late 90's but everything I've checked solders just fine.

Some of it I'll never find a use for but much of it is really useful to have in stock for repairs and prototypes. Besides, I find that checking datasheets for unknown stuff almost always gives you new ideas for things to build or try.

[bingo600]

20kg of components for €134. 23200 IC's, about 1700 THT and the rest SMD, and 38 x 500 or 1000 pcs. PRC201 series SMD resistors (Philips), 0R33-1M 1218 1W 5%. 7200 pcs. in 133 types from the 74HC series, 6200 pcs. in 127 types from the 74HCT series and 5600 pcs. in 92 types from the HEF4000 series. Also a bunch of tubes of jellybean stuff, tubes of machined sockets and some specialty stuff. All in all 481 different types of IC's, all in labeled tubes. I've only checked a few handfuls, mostly Maxim, on Mouser etc. and some sells for €8-10 a piece in small quantities.

Comes from a telecommunication provider that were once a national monopoly, I'm guessing the R&D department. Mid to late 90's but everything I've checked solders just fine.

He..He ... Ser dem på BG 
Mon ikke de er fra Sletvej ....

Think they had a big repair shop on Sletvej


/Bingo

[daqq]

...it followed me home.

[Cubdriver]

...it followed me home.

Yeah, SUUUURE it did.  We all know you were dropping banana plugs behind you and it followed along eating them...  You baited it!!   

-Pat

[TheSteve]

...it followed me home.

Very nice, have you had a peak inside yet?

[daqq]

Very nice, have you had a peak inside yet?

Nope, I'll first read out the cal memory via GPIB (when I get my hands on an appropriate converter) to back it up - for all I know the calibration RAM battery is near death - I'm a bit scared of getting a rather expensive paperweight. Maybe I won't even open it up. Will see.

So far as I can tell with my limited gear: The (DC) voltage is OK, 2 wire ohms are OK, but 4 wire ohms are giving a significantly different reading then they should be. Maybe it's just some particularly obscure setting, but it shouldn't be. Will investigate.

Anyways, the user interface so far is a pain in the ass, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Yeah, SUUUURE it did.  We all know you were dropping banana plugs behind you and it followed along eating them...  You baited it!!   

...I confess 

[xrunner]

...it followed me home.

Well sure it did - you must have told it you had a nice juicy 2.5V source just waiting for it. 

[VK5RC]

Good buy!
Mine had an active memory error when I bought it (brought the price down to my range) but I was able to get out the cal data with a Prologix and KE5FX's program prior to cracking the case,  then desoldered the nvram,   used a tl866 programmer to suck it out as well.
Put in good sockets, replaced with new re-programmed nvram,  recapped the power supply,  quick general clean and replaced the EMI filter,  as per xdevs.
All went well.
Robert