Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Not guilty

[bd139]

Me neither. Well not this time 

[Cerebus]

Ditto, not guilty here either. But I did think about bidding on it.

[Mr. Scram]

I'm fairly miffed about this one, though I probably got what I deserved for setting my maximum bid so low. Now I really, really need to resist the urge to buy something else to ease the pain, as it is likely to be something I need even less than a 6,5/7,5 digit multimeter.

[Mr. Scram]

I've been making offers on a device a while back, running into the three offer maximum I wasn't aware of. Obviously, the folks offering the counter have realized the folly of their asking price and reduced the price by about 50 or 60 dollars. However, the sneaky bastards have also upped the cost of shipping, from a reasonable price to over double that reasonable price, mostly negating the discount given.

I don't think I shall be doing business with these people.

[RandallMcRee]

On ebay, if you really want something, you need to snipe--its a case of if you can't beat 'em then join them. So far as I can tell there is no way to beat them.

So, yeah, I usually enter my highest bid just seconds from the end date. (Yep, make sure that the button you are about to hit is the very last button you need to hit!). There is also, apparently, software to do this same thing but, being software, can do it more than once. So you may be up against that kind of thing.

No, it wasn't me, either. (I look from time-to-time though!)

I always look at the shipping prices. If unreasonable I won't bid, just because I consider the seller disreputable if its too high.

[bitseeker]

Sorry, Mr. Scram, it was not I who sniped the 3457A. I'd be bummed, though, if I had sniped something from someone here.

I did snipe a microcontroller, though. Fortunately, the two who were fighting over it were under my max.

[bitseeker]

i did score three Agilent E3631A (Tripple channel PSU) for 160 bucks at a auction. All of them supposebly broken

Wow, three for 160? Nice. I've worked on a few and would be interested to hear what's up with yours. The only thing I don't like about them is the bi-polar output. I wish all three channels were isolated. Keysight finally did that on the recently released successors to the 3631.

[battlecoder]

I'm new here and I definitely feel like this particular group is where I'll spend most of my time in.

I recently found a guy selling a TDS2024C in excellent shape for like $150 USD, and I have this soft-spot for products with crazy specs and then a massive Achilles Heel (in this case, sample memory).
Ironically the scope is already better in many ways than what I currently have (A humble DS1052E with hacked 100Mhz bandwidth, enough for a hobbyist like myself I guess) so I considered it at least 50% INGIS (Is Not Garbage, I Swear).

I also have a soft spot for yesteryear tech (I was looking for an analog scope when I found this one, but that's a completely different story).

One part of me says: You already have a scope that does most of what you need for analog work! And your "multi-channel" needs are ALL digital, so your cheapo USB logic analyzer is enough! Also 2.5K per channel? What's that? They'd get more memory if they used electrostatic charge to store data in the dust particles that cover the board inside, BECAUSE IT'S F*CKING ANCIENT!. A cheap $1 calculator probably has more memory than that.

The other part says: LISTEN, It's a 4-channel 200Mhz scope for $150 USD. Twice the bandwidth you currently have, twice the number of channels, and a fraction of what you paid for that Rigol. You'll never get a 200Mhz scope for less than that! It's also a rare case of an instrument with 99% decent specs and then this one massive fail. You LOVE those. By the way, have you seen the FFT on it? Yes, it sucks compared to real spectrum analyzers and decent scopes, but your Rigol's implementation of FFT is so bad, that I'm sure the first F stands for FAIL and the T is for "we Tried, sorry". If Fourier was alive he'd sue Rigol for misusing his name. At least this one is usable. (Psst: I also think you can bargain with the guy and get a lower price *wink*).


Guys, my soul hurts.

[Berni]

Sniping bastards. I was bidding on a decent looking HP 3457A, and someone outbid me at the last minute. I really don't like that, let's just be men and have a proper bidding war. There's something to be said for auctions that extend the deadline by x after each bid.

I hope it at least went to someone on here.

A lot of people make the mistake of bidding just a few dollars higher than the current asking price. This makes it easy for someone to come in and outbid you. The thing to do is bid the maximum you would be happy to still pay for the item. That way when someone snipes at the last moment you still win. Even if you are the one sniping its a good idea to just bid your max since its always possible that someone might outsnipe you.

But in general ebay auctions are quite unpredictable. The 20GHz sampling plugin up there for example i won for just above the starting price because only 1 person bid the starting price in the last minute and i just placed the first increment on top of that. Boring calm auction. Then you have when a HP or Keithley 8.5 digit DMM shows up and with 5 days still left the bidding goes from $10 to $2000. And then i also seen auctions where there are 0 bids up until the last few minutes and in the last 30 seconds the price goes from the $100 starting bid to $800 as suddenly 5 people fight it out(Yeah i lost that one).

Don't worry losing auctions is part of ebay. Just have to patiently wait for a new bargain to show up.

i did score three Agilent E3631A (Tripple channel PSU) for 160 bucks at a auction. All of them supposebly broken

Wow, three for 160? Nice. I've worked on a few and would be interested to hear what's up with yours. The only thing I don't like about them is the bi-polar output. I wish all three channels were isolated. Keysight finally did that on the recently released successors to the 3631.

Oh i didn't know about the bipolar output, that is a bit anoying indeed.

It was on a equipnet auction where i kept my eye on anything that went under the radar and managed to snatch a few things and this was one of the nice deals i scored. I still need to get it reshipped here so there is more cost involved. Hopefully they are an easy fix, i much rather repair a bench PSU than a spectrum analyzer.

[capt bullshot]

I recently found a guy selling a TDS2024C in excellent shape for like $150 USD, and I have this soft-spot for products with crazy specs and then a massive Achilles Heel (in this case, sample memory).

Go for it, it's a quite reasonable price for this thing. Here (in Germany) they go for way much higher prices. And it isn't too bad, just the small memory - which in many cases doesn't hurt - depends what your requirements are.

[capt bullshot]

i did score three Agilent E3631A (Tripple channel PSU) for 160 bucks at a auction. All of them supposebly broken

That's a good score. I've had one these (or a similar one) at work many years ago, didn't like its UI and the wrong order of the binding posts. In the culture I live we count from left to right, so the most negative potential has to be located most left.

[Berni]

Well there is nothing wrong with having multiple scopes. That way you don't need a scope that's good at everything. Or if its an old analog scope there is the excuse that you need a extra scope in order to repair your scope if it breaks.

I would have figured the UI wouldn't be as nice on these Agilent E3631A. So far i love the UI on my Rigol DP832. Shows everything you need on one screen in a clear meaner and setting the volts and amps is nicely quick and easy. Menus are a bit awkward but i never really need to use them.

[battlecoder]

Go for it, it's a quite reasonable price for this thing. Here (in Germany) they go for way much higher prices. And it isn't too bad, just the small memory - which in many cases doesn't hurt - depends what your requirements are.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's a decent deal.
Regarding memory depth: I haven't ever been in a situation where I'd go "damn, if only this scope had more memory", but I guess it's because I've only been using the Rigol for the past 7 years, and 1M is plenty for its specs. Perhaps I'd find that 2.5K are more than enough, or perhaps I'll find it immediately insufficient!

Well there is nothing wrong with having multiple scopes. That way you don't need a scope that's good at everything. Or if its an old analog scope there is the excuse that you need a extra scope in order to repair your scope if it breaks.

Knowing myself, if I find that 2.5K is enough for my purposes I'll probably sell the Rigol and use the money to buy more gear (Yay for more gear to report in this thread I guess ?). Despite being old the Tektronix seems to be already a step-up from the Rigol in most aspects (except memory depth).

[ChrisLX200]

My own rules for Ebay are: Only bid what you are prepared to pay, and only bid once (that pre-determined amount) close to the end of the auction. This results in my losing out most times , on the other hand I console myself by realising there will always be another for sale sometime.. I used to make use of Ebay Genie (sniping tool) which made this easy, just type in your max amount and the tool entered your bid at the last moment. There was no need to monitor the auction. Sadly it became unreliable, in part because Ebay themselves do not like people using them and used tricks to disable it. The bottom line is if you have the highest bid at the end of the auction then you win, everything up until that point is irrelevant and a waste of effort. The only time I ever bid earlier is when there are no bids at all and I don't want the seller to remove the item, a bid makes it a bit more awkward to end the auction early and also lets them know someone is interested.

[bd139]

Good advice 

I’m a sniping bastard. I’ll bid the amount I want to pay at 5 seconds to go. That amount is based on previous sale prices plus worth to me and risk. Worst case I’ll cost someone else some more money

[tautech]

I'm new here and I definitely feel like this particular group is where I'll spend most of my time in.

I recently found a guy selling a TDS2024C in excellent shape for like $150 USD, ............

Good deal, grab it.
The Tek 2000's are good basic DSO's.

Let me warn you about keeping it clean......
My 2012B got a spec of dust (or something) on one of the pins of a 100 pin flat pack SMD IC and over time it corroded the pin through and then refused to boot. 
The top of the case on these are vented so any muck can drop inside and over time cause havoc.
Now if it hadn't rotted off right against the IC package it might be an easy repair. <grrrrr>

[Mr. Scram]

A lot of people make the mistake of bidding just a few dollars higher than the current asking price. This makes it easy for someone to come in and outbid you. The thing to do is bid the maximum you would be happy to still pay for the item. That way when someone snipes at the last moment you still win. Even if you are the one sniping its a good idea to just bid your max since its always possible that someone might outsnipe you.

But in general ebay auctions are quite unpredictable. The 20GHz sampling plugin up there for example i won for just above the starting price because only 1 person bid the starting price in the last minute and i just placed the first increment on top of that. Boring calm auction. Then you have when a HP or Keithley 8.5 digit DMM shows up and with 5 days still left the bidding goes from $10 to $2000. And then i also seen auctions where there are 0 bids up until the last few minutes and in the last 30 seconds the price goes from the $100 starting bid to $800 as suddenly 5 people fight it out(Yeah i lost that one).

Don't worry losing auctions is part of ebay. Just have to patiently wait for a new bargain to show up.

Yeah, it's a rookie mistake and I certainly know better. Maybe on a subconcious level it was also a matter of not wanting to let a good deal go, but actually not quite being after such a deal too. Though it would have been cool to have a 7 1/2 digit DMM. It could have served as a baseline for the rest of the lab.

And yes, I know it's part of eBay. It's just that when it starts happening too much, it's not a lot of fun.

[Mr. Scram]

Good advice 

I’m a sniping bastard. I’ll bid the amount I want to pay at 5 seconds to go. That amount is based on previous sale prices plus worth to me and risk. Worst case I’ll cost someone else some more money

If you're actually bidding yourself, it's one thing, though I'd still prefer a proper bidding war. I can't stand the automated bids, though. It takes the fun out of it.

[bd139]

I don’t use software to bid. I do to find the auctions and I wrote that myself.

Incidentally there is bugger all of interest at the moment.

[Mr. Scram]

That's a good score. I've had one these (or a similar one) at work many years ago, didn't like its UI and the wrong order of the binding posts. In the culture I live we count from left to right, so the most negative potential has to be located most left.

How does counting from left to right translate into the negative potential being the most left? It's not like binding posts are alphabetically ordered. Besides, this way it's proper electron flow, not that inaccurate conventional rubbish. 

If you want to do it properly, do it properly.

[capt bullshot]

That's a good score. I've had one these (or a similar one) at work many years ago, didn't like its UI and the wrong order of the binding posts. In the culture I live we count from left to right, so the most negative potential has to be located most left.

How does counting from left to right translate into the negative potential being the most left? It's not like binding posts are alphabetically ordered. Besides, this way it's proper electron flow, not that inaccurate conventional rubbish. 

It's basically some kind of intuitive action - If a connect whatever to the supply's output, I start with GND. So I'm expecting the first connector (0V) leftmost because I'm thinking left to right. In case of a bipolar supply, negative - 0 - positive is just an extension of 0 - positive in a logical way.

There's some of these examples of designers not thinking intuitive - I've had a alarm radio combo with the clock setting buttons arranged like "+ Set -". Intuitive in my context is "- Set +", though everyone here speaks of "+/-" buttons but expects them in "- +" order. A bit more subtle with up/down button arranged horizontally, which one is to come first (left) to be intuitive?

[Mr. Scram]

It's basically some kind of intuitive action - If a connect whatever to the supply's output, I start with GND. So I'm expecting the first connector (0V) leftmost because I'm thinking left to right. In case of a bipolar supply, negative - 0 - positive is just an extension of 0 - positive in a logical way.

There's some of these examples of designers not thinking intuitive - I've had a alarm radio combo with the clock setting buttons arranged like "+ Set -". Intuitive in my context is "- Set +", though everyone here speaks of "+/-" buttons but expects them in "- +" order. A bit more subtle with up/down button arranged horizontally, which one is to come first (left) to be intuitive?

I'd say connecting positive is more intuitive. You read a circuit from postive to negative, so you look at positive first, then complete the circuit with negative.

I'm ignoring you might want to connect negative first to prevent floating and other issues. This is more about impulse.

[URI]

Good advice 

I’m a sniping bastard. I’ll bid the amount I want to pay at 5 seconds to go. That amount is based on previous sale prices plus worth to me and risk. Worst case I’ll cost someone else some more money

I totally agree. The way ebay "auctions" are set up it's the way to go.
It would be different if the last bid would extend the auction time for a known portion of time. But that's not ebay.. 

[bd139]

Yep that was yahoo auctions and is dead