What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[edgelog]

The fourth one you've circled isn't really for soldering. These are usually used for modelling plastics or woodwork. The first and third you've marked will cover you for 95% of what you want to do.

I don't know what it's intended for, but I'm using a knife tip like that on my Ersa iTool for connectors and larger straight edges. Has a lot of heat delivery capacity.

[rdl]

Actually it is for drag soldering, granted you are correct in that I doubt it is used by many, metcal has similar called a drag hoof.

Mine has just a flat bevel, not the hollowed out type used for drag soldering. It's more like a chisel tip with only one side flattened. On my other cheap soldering iron I use a regular chisel tip that's a little larger.

[FrankBuss]

Actually it is for drag soldering, granted you are correct in that I doubt it is used by many, metcal has similar called a drag hoof.

Mine has just a flat bevel, not the hollowed out type used for drag soldering. It's more like a chisel tip with only one side flattened. On my other cheap soldering iron I use a regular chisel tip that's a little larger.

The beveled tips are useful for drag soldering as well:



But I've also used just a standard round tip, works too. I think it is a bit like art or crafting: a good artist can do anything even with a ballpoint pen, but if you have no talent or practice, you can use the most expensive tools, but achieve nothing.

[ChrisLX200]

Bought another USB>3-1/2" floppy drive (well, two actually..). Trying to hack my Tek 3014B only to find the drive I already owned had decided it would no longer read/write a floppy drive. They were cheap, and I needed to get above £20 to get free postage so I just ordered two. I have a pile of PC floppy drives but no way of interfacing them - and the cheap USB option was just easier anyway. So now I can give the hack a try - but first I need to drop back a version of firmware.

[tautech]

The fourth one you've circled isn't really for soldering. These are usually used for modelling plastics or woodwork.

https://www.hakko.com/english/tip_selection/series_900m.html#type_k
Certainly listed as for soldering.
Haako even have a link in the above page to show examples of usage but not how I use them for when they outshine all other tips......SMD passive rework.
No need to fire up hot air to remove SMD passives when you have one of these, simply bridge both pads and wipe the component off when the solder has melted.

[Specmaster]

A flux pen and a jar of tip restorer plus a new desk chair.

Nice, I have a very very similar chair in my study ... it's super comfortable!



https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/bathurst-chair-blue-jbbathchbe

Well you're not wrong about it being very comfortable, lovely padding and a nice high back to it .

[Specmaster]

A flux pen and a jar of tip restorer plus a new desk chair.

How fast does it go?

It doesn't go at all, seems I forgot to order the engine but it is nice and comfy 

[georges80]

Bought (and hopefully receive next week through the xmas package buildup) a B&K 9104 power supply. Needed something that could get to at least 60V at 3A. The 9104 is 0-84V 0-10A (any combo that is 320W max). It's a switcher, so not 'quiet' but not a 30kg boat anchor either . I need it for testing a higher voltage/power LED driver prototype and a bit of rms/p-p noise on the input is a non-issue.

cheers,
george.

[tooki]

The two regular transformers are probably back-to-back to end up with 1:1 turn ratio. I'm not sure why they didn't just do that with a single 1:1 transformer. Perhaps to be able to change the input voltage and/or range.

That makes sense.

My latest purchase, if you will, is about $2500 of tattoo work. So much left to go... ::sigh::

That makes no sense whatsoever. 

Tattoo artists don’t work for free!

[Decoman]

Not knowing if I really would bee needing a crimping tool soon, I ordered two models off eBay. I hope they do not turn out to be crap. A cheap wire stripper I bought down town ended up in the garbage bin the very same day I got it.

[GreyWoolfe]

The two regular transformers are probably back-to-back to end up with 1:1 turn ratio. I'm not sure why they didn't just do that with a single 1:1 transformer. Perhaps to be able to change the input voltage and/or range.

That makes sense.

My latest purchase, if you will, is about $2500 of tattoo work. So much left to go... ::sigh::

That makes no sense whatsoever. 

Tattoo artists don’t work for free!

Nor are good artists cheap.  I have a small black and grey tattoo on my chest, custom that was pretty expensive.

[jonovid]

A flux pen and a jar of tip restorer plus a new desk chair.

Nice, I have a very very similar chair in my study ... it's super comfortable!



https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/bathurst-chair-blue-jbbathchbe

Well you're not wrong about it being very comfortable, lovely padding and a nice high back to it .

I am seeing this type of chair pop-up with popular youtubers.
the desk chair for a whole generation that may never own a car! 
it has me wondering what they the automotive aftermarket will do with unsold gear knobs & steering wheel covers.

[Macbeth]

I am seeing this type of chair pop-up with popular youtubers.
the desk chair for a whole generation that may never own a car! 
it has me wondering what they the automotive aftermarket will do with unsold gear knobs & steering wheel covers.

Exactly. As soon as I see useless shit like 4 point harness stuff in an office chair it instantly triggers alarm bells - form over function.

I have a Thrustmaster GT steering wheel and pedals (in a crate somewhere) and the last thing I wanted was a 4 point harness computer chair (with no roll cage) rolling about on castors when using it. 

[Specmaster]

I am seeing this type of chair pop-up with popular youtubers.
the desk chair for a whole generation that may never own a car! 
it has me wondering what they the automotive aftermarket will do with unsold gear knobs & steering wheel covers.

Exactly. As soon as I see useless shit like 4 point harness stuff in an office chair it instantly triggers alarm bells - form over function.

I have a Thrustmaster GT steering wheel and pedals (in a crate somewhere) and the last thing I wanted was a 4 point harness computer chair (with no roll cage) rolling about on castors when using it. 

Whatever the stuff is that you're smoking or chewing on, its pretty good stuff because you're seeing a lot more than I am when I look at both the photo of and the real chair in the flesh and I certainly cannot detect any hint of a 4 point harness on it anywhere. 

I know that there is another version of this chair on sale which does indeed have straps on it, 1 set for a lumber support, adjustable position wise and also a neck support which again is adjustable.

[Macbeth]

Whatever the stuff is that you're smoking or chewing on, its pretty good stuff because you're seeing a lot more than I am when I look at both the photo of and the real chair in the flesh and I certainly cannot detect any hint of a 4 point harness on it anywhere. 

I know that there is another version of this chair on sale which does indeed have straps on it, 1 set for a lumber support, adjustable position wise and also a neck support which again is adjustable.

Why do you pay extras for 2 useless holes designed for seatbelts to slip through and cross your chest and clip down at your crotch, like Recaro Rally seats? You are shoving a mouse and tapping on a keyboard, not pretending to be Colin McCrae... Even when you are pretending by playing video games, you are never going to roll over and require strapping in anyway. 

It's fashion or form over function. Ergonomic chairs are far more sensible and don't have useless crap like that, but tend to be a personal thing rather than mass market gamer chair stuff. One day your back may go out and it is hell on earth I can tell you.

[Mr. Scram]

Why do you pay extras for 2 useless holes designed for seatbelts to slip through and cross your chest and clip down at your crotch, like Recaro Rally seats? You are shoving a mouse and tapping on a keyboard, not pretending to be Colin McCrae... Even when you are pretending by playing video games, you are never going to roll over and require strapping in anyway. 

It's fashion or form over function. Ergonomic chairs are far more sensible and don't have useless crap like that, but tend to be a personal thing rather than mass market gamer chair stuff. One day your back may go out and it is hell on earth I can tell you.

You're mistaken. Those are vent holes for sweaty nerds.

[Specmaster]

Whatever the stuff is that you're smoking or chewing on, its pretty good stuff because you're seeing a lot more than I am when I look at both the photo of and the real chair in the flesh and I certainly cannot detect any hint of a 4 point harness on it anywhere. 

I know that there is another version of this chair on sale which does indeed have straps on it, 1 set for a lumber support, adjustable position wise and also a neck support which again is adjustable.

Why do you pay extras for 2 useless holes designed for seatbelts to slip through and cross your chest and clip down at your crotch, like Recaro Rally seats? You are shoving a mouse and tapping on a keyboard, not pretending to be Colin McCrae... Even when you are pretending by playing video games, you are never going to roll over and require strapping in anyway. 

It's fashion or form over function. Ergonomic chairs are far more sensible and don't have useless crap like that, but tend to be a personal thing rather than mass market gamer chair stuff. One day your back may go out and it is hell on earth I can tell you.

The only difference between this chair and a normal office managers chair (ignoring the colour and stripes) is the fact it has higher backrest and the top is shaped rather than going straight and flat from side to side. As a 6ft 4" tall person, I find the extra support for my head welcome. The holes are there for other reasons one of these could be the addition of a adjustable lumber cushion as the one in the attached photo shows and also additional support for natural curvature of your neck when sitting right back in the chair, also shown in the attached photo. I did not buy it as gaming, nor a racing chair but as it was advertised as, and is being as, an office chair.

[technix]

I wonder if this makes any sense: I bought some used PCB's with automotive i.MX6D chips on it for $15, and took the chips (along with the Micron 4Gb DDR3L SDRAM and Micron 16GB eMMC chips, et al) off the board. The seller was using those as development units for some kind of auto infotainment system and since the products delivered they no longer need to keep that amount of development units. I am having a reballing kit coming soon

Should I resell the reballed chips, or just keep them for myself? The exact part numbers are:

• Processor: MCIMX6D6AVT08AC
• SDRAM: MT41K256M16HA-125 IT:E
• eMMC: MTFC16GJDEC-4M IT
• PMIC: TPS65251Q1
• GPS: UBX-G6010-ST
• NOR Flash: S29GL128S90DHI01

Also, does anyone know how to program Renesas µPD78F1824? Those also came off the same board.

[Mr. Scram]

I take my words back. They can't allow both drives to spin up simultaneously. One has to spin up first before the other one. So I bodged another power module to solve this. This time a very beefy one. I found a 200W Vicor Mini Gen2 in my crap bin. It would be better if I have a smaller 1/8 or 1/16 brick module, but I don't. All of my smaller modules are 48V input modules, only the half brick one is 24V input model. After sitting in my crap bin for more than 8 years, I finally found a use for it.

This calls for a 555 timer!

[technix]

I wonder if this makes any sense: I bought some used PCB's with automotive i.MX6D chips on it for $15, and took the chips (along with the Micron 4Gb DDR3L SDRAM and Micron 16GB eMMC chips, et al) off the board. The seller was using those as development units for some kind of auto infotainment system and since the products delivered they no longer need to keep that amount of development units. I am having a reballing kit coming soon

Should I resell the reballed chips, or just keep them for myself? The exact part numbers are:

• Processor: MCIMX6D6AVT08AC
• SDRAM: MT41K256M16HA-125 IT:E
• eMMC: MTFC16GJDEC-4M IT
• PMIC: TPS65251Q1
• GPS: UBX-G6010-ST
• NOR Flash: S29GL128S90DHI01

Also, does anyone know how to program Renesas µPD78F1824? Those also came off the same board.

The SoC is $45 new, I don't think you can even fetch $15 on second hand market.
The eMMC and RAM combined may get you $5 if you are extremely lucky.
The GPS, if there's a datasheet, maybe $5.
Others are trash.

I got 14x the RAM chip and 7x of the SoC, eMMC, GPS and everything else in the $15 grab bag of boards. Everything is Industrial or Automotive grade or better. I took four off the boards and three still mounted.

[technix]

I got 14x the RAM chip and 7x of the SoC, eMMC, GPS and everything else in the $15 grab bag of boards. Everything is Industrial or Automotive grade or better. I took four off the boards and three still mounted.

If you can get hold onto a copy of BSP package, selling the board will fetch much more money.

I don't have the BSP. I know that the seller has but he cannot release it to me, even with NDA. So I am kind of on my own here.

Since those powerful chips are so damn cheap, maybe I can practice BGA routing and soldering with them? Maybe I can get a board made for about $50, and if it works, I can create my own BSP. I know for a fact that NXP mainlined the drivers for this chip, so it is very likely I can get stock Ubuntu or Debian armhf running on it.

[technix]

Since those powerful chips are so damn cheap, maybe I can practice BGA routing and soldering with them? Maybe I can get a board made for about $50, and if it works, I can create my own BSP. I know for a fact that NXP mainlined the drivers for this chip, so it is very likely I can get stock Ubuntu or Debian armhf running on it.

1. You can, but not with $50 PCB. You need at least 4-mil process for 4-layer, or preferably 6-layer, unless you want to use plugged micro vias.

It would be much cheaper than buying the 4 chips alone anyway. So still worth it.

2. Routing dual 16-bit DDR is gonna be a great fun. When you bifurcate any high speed signal, things get rather nasty rather quickly.

Or can I just stick a laptop memory module onto it? That would be plain point to point connection from the chip to the RAM slot connector.

3. Don't use mainline kernel and u-boot. Use NXP's own one. They have an official BSP if you just want to boot the chip, and a community one if you want to customize it. You will need basics on Yocto.

I don't plan to use Yocto at all. Maybe I will need the kernel if it is the latest version, but I definitely plan to spend zero time on compiling the userland at all and just grab Debian or Ubuntu armhf. In fact the whole point of preferring mainline kernel over NXP's is because of Debian.

4. Prepare at least 16GB of RAM. Yocto for iMX6 fails to compile with 8GB if you don't have swap. It's one of the small things that have wasted me 2 days.

I have an idling server with 128GB RAM and 32 processor threads. Compiling the kernel should be a breeze.

5. Yocto is not very popular in China, expect to ask no one and read a lot of materials in English. Prepare to buy books from abroad. Packt has a few books, one of them is specifically written for fsl-community-bsp (the BSP you will be using), the book is called "Embedded Linux Projects Using Yocto Project Cookbooks".

First off, I am not planning on using Yocto in the first place. Second, I would rather not read Chinese documentations anyway since a lot of the writers of those provide no insight on what is going on anyway.

In fact, for the software, instead of u-boot directly launching Linux kernel, I might place a TiernoCore based UEFI in there so it can launch Linux, Darwin (the underlying UNIX part of macOS and iOS) and Windows.

[Specmaster]

I liked the first one so much I went and got yet another

[Mr. Scram]

I liked the first one so much I went and got yet another

How much did you pay this time?

[Specmaster]

How much did you pay?