What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[AlexJackson]

Didn't buy anything today... Latest purchase was something off ebay that was local enough we tried arranging a local pickup (we are 5.6 miles, 9km apart), but had issues with ebay's messaging. So in short to make his shipping deadline, and he was going out of town for a bit so he had to ship it. That was January 4th when it arrived across the state. Stayed there until yesterday at one sorting office only to make its way further north to another sorting facility.

All for a $9 purchase. 12 days, 157 miles /252.6km and its still nowhere in sight, keeping this trend looking like I'll get it 29 more days after traveling 480 miles, 41 days.... for a small box of 26 ICs from a guy that lives less than 5 miles away.

The other IC lot is sitting in Atlanta still.. I don't want to talk about that one too.

So, I bought waiting an ungodly long time... ... Originally I intended to buy some ICs for a project that is now indefinitely on hold. Sorry about the rant.

[IDEngineer]

The other IC lot is sitting in Atlanta still.. I don't want to talk about that one too.... Sorry about the rant.

I can relate. Mid-December I found a NOS motherboard for my new Win7 workstation build. The seller is in Virginia. We agreed on price, and he shipped it Priority 2-Day the same day. He sent me the USPS tracking number. I would have it in two business days. Online tracking confirmed it was "in the system".

And there it sat.

Stuck in a distribution center in Virginia.

For three weeks.

Meanwhile I had ordered all of the other components. I started to worry that their warranties might run out before I got a chance to even test them.

I filed a formal complaint with the USPS. Got a phone call the same day, so I can't fault their response time! The story was that a combination of Christmas time shipping and COVID-19 absences meant shipping containers were parked in rows in storage areas, with nobody to unload and process them. He estimated it would be mid-January at best for Priority packages. Standard shipping wasn't expected to process until sometime in February. I would receive notification when it started moving again.

Nothing else happened for many days, then I got a message. Not that it had finally started moving, but that it had been delivered! Sure enough, there it was in the mailbox. I've since assembled the system and it's working fine so far.

So yeah, I can definitely relate to shipping delays. Even when you spend extra money for Priority shipping.

[Ground_Loop]

New ADS 200 arrived today.

[iainwhite]

New EEvblog Brymen BM786 arrived to join the family . . .

[Mr. Scram]

New EEvblog Brymen BM786 arrived to join the family . . . (Attachment Link)

It's unfortunate the graphics style and colours are slightly mismatched. The new DMM looks good and chonky though. How is the autohold feature?

[McBryce]

A few 74LS257 and 258, because when you're fixing TTL devices, no matter how many 74 series types you have in your stock, the one that failed is the one you don't have.

McBryce.

[richnormand]

That is so true!
Although finding proper ecl replacements for a proper non-kluge repair is also up there.

[IDEngineer]

On that note: I finally got tired of Rubing together various series-parallel networks of the resistor values I had on hand. Instead I treated myself to a full selection of those sample kits from DigiKey. Each one includes five samples of every 1% value in a given order of magnitude. I have every 1% value from 10R to 1M plus a few outside those ranges that have become necessary over time. Every new order I refresh the values I've consumed. There are a few I keep in 100's since they're used so often. This has made a WORLD of difference in breadboarding convenience.

To a limited extent I've done the same with capacitors. The problem there is the wide variety of dielectrics makes it impractical to have every value of every type.

Obviously this isn't practical for IC's and discrete semiconductors. But it's been a huge time saver and convenience multiplier. Like my Hakko FR-300 desoldering gun, I only wish I hadn't waited so long.

[rfclown]

Got a Knight series 600 tube tester, after a cap and a carbon resistor replacement, switch cleaning, it now seems working good !

I still have to "calibrate" it.

Seeing the pictures makes me want one. I've never designed with tubes, and I have no reason to have a tester, but it brings back memories of going to the store to test them. I have a Philco radio that was my grandmothers, so I could justify buying one by saying that I could test the tubes.

[BU508A]

Got a Knight series 600 tube tester, after a cap and a carbon resistor replacement, switch cleaning, it now seems working good !

I still have to "calibrate" it.

Seeing the pictures makes me want one. I've never designed with tubes, and I have no reason to have a tester, but it brings back memories of going to the store to test them. I have a Philco radio that was my grandmothers, so I could justify buying one by saying that I could test the tubes.

If you are interested in testing tubes and want a proper tube tester, then I recommend to have a look at the RoeTest from Helmut Weigl.

Link: http://roehrentest.de/EnglishInfo.html

Sounds like a fun project. 

[McBryce]

Got a Knight series 600 tube tester, after a cap and a carbon resistor replacement, switch cleaning, it now seems working good !

I still have to "calibrate" it.

Seeing the pictures makes me want one. I've never designed with tubes, and I have no reason to have a tester, but it brings back memories of going to the store to test them. I have a Philco radio that was my grandmothers, so I could justify buying one by saying that I could test the tubes.

If you are interested in testing tubes and want a proper tube tester, then I recommend to have a look at the RoeTest from Helmut Weigl.

Link: http://roehrentest.de/EnglishInfo.html

Sounds like a fun project. 

It looks extremely interesting, but definitely not a minor project!

McBryce.

[elor]

keithley 2100 for parts missing the front panel measurements are inaccurate
looks like its missing its main board metal shield plastic on off extender and maybe other stuff?? also im not sure if it has the cover itself i guess ill find out soon
price 40 euro plus the same for shipping
what was i thinking? good question..

[BU508A]

Bought today a MASTECH MS8911 on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283341251476

Arrived today. Looking good so far. 
Pictures will follow this evening.

[exe]

Someone living in the same apartment building which a few of my coworkers rent at was taken to quarantine.

May I ask how this happened? Did the police come and arrested him, or he was ill and ambulance took him?

[IDEngineer]

May I ask how this happened? Did the police come and arrested him, or he was ill and ambulance took him?

I was wondering the same thing. "...being taken away..." sounded pretty ominous.

[ledtester]

Spotted these in my local surplus store.

Ganged variacs -- what are they used for???

[rsjsouza]

The variacs are for multi phase systems.

[AlexJackson]

One of my latest purchases has arrived. 6 days late. Got a score of old ICs off an ebay "estate sale". Lots of mid-late 70s vintage. Also had a 8080 cpu in the mix too with a lot of other related peripherals. I haven't checked any of these 8000 family chips (i could only read one in the original listing picture) but a few of the other logic chips checked good. Almost 200 ICs total. Spent 30 including shipping. Mainly bought them to play with since I used to have hundreds of ICs before I had to purge (long story, but it happened when I was a teen. I'm over 40 now).

[mansaxel]

Ganged variacs -- what are they used for???

My highschool auditorium had a large three-phase model of that for lights; installed in the early 70s, IIRC. Absolutely hum-free dimming, and a wonderfully smooth curve. I used to point this out to the thyristor dimmer fanboys, saying that there was a method of not contaminating my sound system...

[BravoV]

A 32" eyes candy. 

4K resolution, 10 bit and with 3 input ports HDMI 2.0, DP 1.2 and USB-C Thundebolt, and also built-in USB hub capable PD up to 95 watts and 4 x USB 3.1 type A ports.

[Microdoser]

Ordered a bench press drill and soft jawed press vice to make holes in enclosures more accurately.

[tautech]

Stemming from a gift voucher from son for Xmas, some bits and bobs needed for the workshop:
Internal spring calipers
1" MT3 drill for starter holes for those big lathe boring jobs
5/16 tool steel
Dial gauge magnetic base
Cutting, drilling, tapping paste
Large and small center bits
Pin punches
Telescopic magnetic pickup tool

[ChristofferB]

An old school HP vector display unit! Hp1335A. Newly restored by the previous owner, although without enclosure.

And a 1962 vintage school/college/lab poster on radiation detectors! Printed on canvas! What a find!

[beanflying]

Swedish made Electronics Adjuster  Move over AvE, Dave and Clive 

[Ed.Kloonk]

Swedish made Electronics Adjuster  Move over AvE, Dave and Clive 

There can be only one!