Products > Test Equipment
Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
bd139:
yeah probably would have. Didn’t look too hard :)
I don’t buy parts second hand. I usually buy refurb ex corporate business laptop, desktop and workstation class machines and monitors only. New RAM goes in and a new disk, a Samsung SSD, gets chucked in it and bob’s your uncle. Amazing what you can get for bugger all if you can stay slightly behind the curve.
Killers: anything already custom built, no brand shit, consumer grade junk, anything that isn’t HP/Lenovo usually :)
Less I spend on this the more I can spend on things I give a crap about, like knackered old scopes :)
Specmaster:
I stay behind the curve when it comes DSLR's and accessories, my Canon 50D cost me £250 3 years ago with a warranty as well but when it was new in 2011 it cost £830 for the body. Cameras don't really get used that much with cameras on the phone for most people, that becomes their camera so DSLR's tend to be the enthusiast such as aviation enthusiasts who in large part will be walking around 2 or 3 cameras slung around their necks and professional lenses attached, all costing into the thousands. When a newer piece of kit comes they must have it and so the price of their old, out of fashion kit comes tumbling down.
When I got my camera body it only had 560 shutter operations on it, I hate to think what it has now and I CBA to get it out now and find out either. :-DD
Specmaster:
Talking about being behind the curve, I'm always well behind it when it comes to serious test gear as new prices are way out of my league.
I saw on Ebay today a Fluke 8840A being sold by Microlease Ltd for £562 still after all these years and it was far worse condition than mine apart from the VFD. I wonder they cost when new then?
Today I was putting it through its paces and comparing it with the HP3478A and they agree almost down to the last digit in lots of cases and considering I did the calibration on the 3478A myself it really can't be that far off if the 8840A matches it. There was a slight error on one of the resistance ranges of 3478A, on the 30 to 300 Ohm range I noticed it was almost exactly 10 Ohms down. I was flicking through my decade box and noticed that when incrementing the 10 Ohm decade 10 to 30 was fine, flicking on 40, the range on the meter changed but reading was showing 30, I made short work of correcting that and now they are back in harmony again, so I'm more than happy with the purchase of them both. :D
bd139:
You did good with that Canon. My father was a part time pro photographer (made enough to pay the cameras off only) and yes they get through cameras like mad. I think there was a 6 month cycle on bodies. Not because they’d worn the old ones out.
Microlease are rip off merchants. You’ll get a battered piece of shit for 562 quid and they only price it like that to make their lease price look good.
Good win though that 8840. Especially after Dave said good things about them. That usually knocks the prices right up :)
Specmaster:
Yeh, it was after watching Daves video that made me want one, although TBH, I've always wanted one, the same with the 3466A and 3478A which Dave also likes strangely.
I don't think that the seller was even aware of the significance of what they were selling TBH, like I said after talking with them on the phone, the price fluctuating all the time so I just told them to sell to the other chap who wanted it posting and left it at that. a couple of hours later I got call from the seller offering it to for £35, didn't want the hustle of posting. I thought then maybe it might be hooky and I was nervous as I hadn't seen it working so I played it cool and said that I'd think about it and let them know later.
The rest is history just maybe they were really desperate for some money, who knows, but it taught me lesson in playing it cool and bargaining. :-DD
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