Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[cyclin_al]

@bd139,
Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage, it costs more and as I see it is more of a benefit if you're running a server or a business as it makes it far easier for customers to both find your website and reach you. The downside of that is that with the right tools, people can pinpoint your location and makes it so much easier to hack into your computer.

Not to sure about that aspect of changing over to them, may have to search about for other options or jump on VM's head till they get their act together and sort out their shit and also maybe offer better prices. According to a search for providers in my area, new customers can get the VM deal that I have for only £39 on 2 year contract, so why am I paying £71 as long-standing customer, that Fffing sucks.

Phone them up and ask?

In the GWN, Virgin Plus and all the other Telcos update their prices frequently.  They intentionally "forget" to switch the existing customers over to the better pricing.
Normal practice is for people to phone up their Telco, threaten to switch carriers, and then presto, they get switched to the lower price.

There must be enough people that do not monitor their costs; it seems to be a very profitable strategy.

-- My calendar shows I have to make a phone call in December

[Zucca]

It's more important whether you can get IPv6 or not. If you can, it's a definite benefit and should weigh heavily in favour.

which reminds me I have to contact again my ISP (Spectrum) to give me a IPv6 according to FCC...

ohhh I am saving the chat with the support they are super funny, I will post it when I get more circus.

Basically

ISP Tier 1 support: does know how to power on and off the modem (useful for 90 years old lady with brain damages).
ISP Tier 2 support: Give you a correct technical answer which is unfortunately not even remotely related with your problem.

why is it such a pain, always.... I mean I would be happy to pay more money but to deal with intelligent ISP people...

[mnementh]

   Okay... I think I'm done with fleaBay now. Gawddamn counterfeit OtterBox for my daughter's iPad.

Side by side with the real one I've had for 3 years, there's just no comparison. Cheap thin ABS, not fully sealed front like a real OtterBox, and the skin is hard, shiny vinyl instead of neoprene rubber.

FML. I haven't had a good deal on there since Ju-fucking-ly.

mnem
 

Fuck... now that I have the two cases in pieces to take pictures, the only really wrong thing I can find with the new one is the feel and heft of the plastic and the "rubber" jacket. The plastic could just be the difference between white and black; tho the outer jacket is definitely made of some firm, slick vinyl material rather the cushy, grippy neoprene of my original.

This case survived 2 iPads with my autistic daughter and is now 6-7 years old; we kept this one because she has trouble with the different home button on the OtterBox for 6th gen iPad, which this one is. She finds the rubber button over the fingerprint sensor home button much easier to use.

*sigh*

This thing did come with all the correct packaging and papers as a real OtterBox... and on assembling with the back and outer skin from the old one, I can see that everything fits exactly the same as the original did  (Yes, those gaps at the corners were the same on the original one), so if this is a counterfeit, it's a damned good one.

As Otterbox evidently no longer makes the Defender series in any color except black, now I'm thinking maybe the vinyl outer skin isn't evidence of counterfeit, but rather a change in production due to product deprecation. Even the Defenders for 6th Gen iPad like this one are only available in black, and they are on reduced for quick sale. Still twice as much as this one was tho, with currency conversion and shipping.

I guess I'm probably as well off just using it this way; seems ridiculous to spend CAD$40 on just one piece of a case, but I can't get any better direct from OtterBox, so what the hell.

99% sure she won't give a flip aboot the black bezel as long as the buttons work right again.

mnem
*getting on with my life*

[BU508A]

Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage...

I'm paying a supplement for a fixed IP address because otherwise my ISP cuts and reestablishes all connections once every 24 hours, changing the IP address in the process. As luck would have it, this would always occur while I was recording or listening to some internet radio program.

For this reason, dynDNS has been invented. A variation can be used together with AVM and their Fritz! routers.
I'm running several VPN tunnels based on this services. Works fine.

[mnementh]

It's more important whether you can get IPv6 or not. If you can, it's a definite benefit and should weigh heavily in favour.

which reminds me I have to contact again my ISP (Spectrum) to give me a IPv6 according to FCC...

ohhh I am saving the chat with the support they are super funny, I will post it when I get more circus.

Basically

ISP Tier 1 support: does know how to power on and off the modem (useful for 90 years old lady with brain damages).
ISP Tier 2 support: Give you a correct technical answer which is unfortunately not even remotely related with your problem.

why is it such a pain, always.... I mean I would be happy to pay more money but to deal with intelligent ISP people...

Of course, there's a XKCD for that... 

   https://xkcd.com/806/

mnem
*toddles off to milk a duck... err, goose...*

[cyclin_al]

@bd139,
Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage, it costs more and as I see it is more of a benefit if you're running a server or a business as it makes it far easier for customers to both find your website and reach you. The downside of that is that with the right tools, people can pinpoint your location and makes it so much easier to hack into your computer.

Don't believe the movies. There is not a database of IP addresses that allows you to instantly geolocate someone. Anyone who tries to geolocate me via my fixed IP address gets the physical address of A&A in Bracknell. As to "easier to hack" - if one's security stance relies on one's IP address changing once in a while then one is also the kind of person who eschews body armour in a shooting war for a wet paper bag. If someone wants to hack you they don't give a flying fuck whether you're on a fixed or a dynamic IP address.

Google sort of does have that database.  They keep track of IP addresses along with the metadata of those with location services turned on.
I have a dynamic IP address that changes daily.  I do not have any devices with location services turned on; maybe SWMBO does have location services turned on.
Just now, I did a google search.  The location shown on the footer of the results page is within 50km based on similar IP addresses...

[Vince]

Dwagon, you just said it...freaking 1763 !!!!    Time for people up there to move on and get a life of their own ! 
Imagine if we still lived in 1763 nostalgia herein France, fuck me what a world that would be !! 
Time passes... let past things... buried in the past. GWN is now much closer culturally and in their day to day life to the USA then they are from France. So if anything they should give up on anything French and speak Spanish too like you did in Texas ! 

You've got to let it go Maverick, let it go...

Which republic is there in France this decade? The 5th, IIRC - and there have been two in my lifetime and three in my brother's

Yes Fifth republic is the current one and has been the longest lived so far !  But it's out of breath and many have been speaking for some time to switch a 6th republic !!!   

Personally I don't think the kind of republic makes any difference to the average joe / middle class who will always get fucked hard. It's just human nature. The poor remain poor, the rich remain rich, middle class is pressurized by every body left and right regardless of republic, to go down and get back to the poor class. Middle class is not a stable state, it's in between two stable states... you have to fight constantly not to fall back to the lowest state of energy... it gets tiring after while... I know I am tired of it anyway.

[DC1MC]

This strange thing happened today to me, usually it doesn't go like this most of the time, I just heard stories, but finally it happened to me as well and now I really need your friendly and professional TEA advice, I'm in a bit of a pinch here. Please read to the and and advise from your gentle kindness  .



lnitial post with a picture of the TE discussed here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3705673/#msg3705673

Warning: long, almost JBG length  . !!!

To a couple of days ago I've posted that I've got a Tek TDS520A for a good price, advertised as defective from an  -bay seller that had some worrisome feedback regarding franken devices made of a collection of defective boards and of BD players missing the whole optical assembly  , but I needed one ceramic front  section for my TDS724A that was inexplicably cracked when I've got it,almost 9 yrs !!! ago. Nobody was able to help me with one, all recommending to "buy a defective one and use it as spare", well,  'gee thanks for advice, the only problem is that in DE/EU the most vile garbage was costing way to much, the US did have some nice pieces but shipping is ruinous and there was just one Chinese seller that advertised one of these sections as "working pull" (then why did you pull it ?!?), for nine years was costing more than what I've paid for the scope and for nine years the price just slightly increased (I think it is tracking the inflation). It also didn't sell in all these years, but the guy is tenacious  .

So I've thought, what the hell, it has four of these sections, maybe, just maybe, one had survived and I was wondering what is the black thing over the calibration signal pins (mystery solved, see below).

So the parcel arrives today morning, my last day of Urlaub (vacation), relatively nicely packed, not just paper but also Styrofoam placed in strategic place, ultra fast and nothing to comment, also DHL used something else for today karate training so was pretty non-banged, so far so good, nothing to comment here.

The device itself is extraordinarily clean on the outside, almost like new it has calibration stickers from 2020  and electrical compliance checking from 2021  !!!,  but connected to the mains behaved as seller says, no power at all, just a faint "tit" when the switch was turned ON but that was it, no other reaction  .

So I open it expecting to find the collection of dead leaked elcos and eventually scavenged boards from 5 other devices, not necessarily related   , but the screws actually did this "unopened device" click, a thing that after so many years and devices opened is unmistakable, wtf, the mystery deepens  .

Inside absolutely immaculate boards, no leaked caps at all (used x2, x10, and x20 visors to inspect), nothing, just a bit of dust that was kicked out with some canned air and a soft brush, same looking a power supply, display assembly and and fan, OK, not it becomes REALLY strange. So, after snapping some pictures (see attached), I decided to put everything back together and use the troubleshooting procedure in the service manual, usually mostly useless, but what the hell, I was already having an eerie sensation.

So with the shield and mainboard put back, I start reading:

" - Q1: Do you have power on the cable ? A: Well, duh."
" - Q2: Is the cable inserted correctly ? A: GTFO.
" - Q3: Did you press the back mains power switch ? A: Come on maaan...
" - Q4: Did you press the ON/STBY button ? A: Uhmmm, actually not, but OK, for the sake of completion, let's press it, happy now mofo !!! wait what.... ?!?!

VOOOOM, booting !!!!, really, are you kidding me ?!?! Hold on a second, why is the screen black after displaying some strange patterns, could it be that the mainboard is done for ?, the little 7-segment digit counted very fast and then stopped with the upper segment lit and all the front panel leds are on, oh well maybe the attenuators are OK, should I commence the rape and pillage already, but hold on a second, what is this black rocker switch on the main board, let's flip it, some on put it in the calibration position and start it again...

VOOOM, monitor on, white blink..., ...strange patterns..., some seconds passes..., clickety, clickety, clack, (OK, that is new...) , and BANG: start up test passed, option 1M and other banner things...

It works, what the hell, this only happen to other people, not me ?!?!, damn, that means that the attenuators are actually toasted, this is why was sold for scrap, shit, shit, shit    !!!

So let's try some probes, even some Tek originals... HOLLY FECES, the signal DOES looked screwed up and totally not 0.5 Vp-p, OK then, lets not panic, wipe the sweat, let it run for a while to get it warm and run SPC, this will most likely fail and tell me if there are some attenuators left or they're all crispy.
SPC running, runninig, ruuuuuning...., done, SPC Passed, All tests passed, signal level and shape still screwed up, let's do a probe compensation what is to lose...

CH1: "Probe compensation succeeded, should overwrite the exiting data ? ", hell yes, do it. And same for CH2 and the other AUX1/2 channels, hallelujah God and saint patron of the TEA, whoever you are !!! IT ACTUALLY WORKS PERFECTLY with all the tests that I could (quickly) think off, this is completely strange, but hey, we live in interesting times, so what is actually this cute black thingie that I've removed from the calibration studs ?!?!
It's a Tektronix Current Probe Calibrator 015-0672-50 where you hook your little current pincer, press a button and inject some current in the bar, achsooo, so this explains the strange level and signal shape for the exiting probe constants, they were CURRENT PROBES !!!

So now the moment you  were all waiting for, due to the small apartment where I'm living one of the TDS scopes HAS to go, there is literally no place for it, so I'm dong this poll of what should I do, please answer in your comment with the number of the option:

- 1) Change the attenuator board to the TDS724A  and flip the TDS520A with reduced price (eventually sponsor a student/forum member for a token plus shipping, PM me in this situation, I have the packaging saved, tomorrow it cold leave to you).

- 2) Flip the TDS520A as a perfectly working device for some extra shekels and wait another nine years until a ceramic section will be available.

- 3) Flip them both in the most profitable configuration, you have enough scopes.


So before attaching some pictures to help you decide, thank you for your support and reading this loooong post.

Cheers,
DC1MC








 

[Vince]

Knocked off another, and hopefully final, issue with the Type 547. Tracked it right down with the Siglent. Essentially a nearly inaccessible section of the sweep mag switch was dirty with intermittent contact. Took some contortions to get some deoxit up there but now clean. As you can see on the Siglent now nice and stable.

What's left: change out the last aluminum can and then calibration/compensation. Have I REALLY conquered this beast after months and months of work? I don't want to jinx myself. 

Going to finish up this guy then go back to the 212 which is in pieces on bench 1.

Ahhh, well done Papy Smurf !! I never doubted that you would fix it eventually !    It's just bunch ot tubes and discrete components, it had to be fixable ! 
I followed this repair with much interest. I was sure I would learn some 547 stuff that would valuable when comes time to look at my own 547... what I did not anticipate however, is just HOW MUCH I would learn !     This repair was a roller coaster ! 

Thanks for sharing all the details with us Papa Smurf !

[AVGresponding]

Today was small package day; I had 4 waiting for me when I got home from work.

Spare chain for the mini-chainsaw, which has proved impressively capable.
2x usb-c leads; spares to be kept in cars/work etc.
4x dc-dc buck convertor modules, 2.5A, 4-30V in, 1.5-30V out (that must be a typo, it has a minimum 1.5V drop so 28.5 would be the max output) @£1.29 each shipped, only ordered them yesterday afternoon! These are for making some usb charger ports in places that don't have them.
Postie just called again, with package number 5, a litre of chainsaw chain oil, lifetime supply for one this size I should think...
The star package is the 10x MAA723 from Mounty. Thanks! Now I have another piece of the puzzle for my v-ref project, and some spares to boot.

[Vince]

This strange thing happened today to me,
[...}
So now the moment you  were all waiting for, due to the small apartment where I'm living one of the TDS scopes HAS to go, there is literally no place for it, so I'm dong this poll of what should I do, please answer in your comment with the number of the option:

- 1) Change the attenuator board to the TDS724A  and flip the TDS520A with reduced price (eventually sponsor a student/forum member for a token plus shipping, PM me in this situation, I have the packaging saved, tomorrow it cold leave to you).

- 2) Flip the TDS520A as a perfectly working device for some extra shekels and wait another nine years until a ceramic section will be available.

- 3) Flip them both in the most profitable configuration, you have enough scopes.


So before attaching some pictures to help you decide, thank you for your support and reading this loooong post.

Cheers,
DC1MC

Well looks like you got lucky, your perseverance finally paid off ! 

I vote for option #1 of course.. your 724A is a much better scope. The 520 not many people will want it, it's blanc and white, and the dreaded leaky caps that will doom this scope very soon.
Just sell the 520A for parts/non working... or if you haved time, sell the parts individually on Ebay for maximum profit, but of course it's an overhead, takes time to list all the parts and interact with the buyers, package everything, go to the post office... might not be worth your time. Easier to just sell the whole thing at once for parts...

[bd139]

@bd139,
Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage, it costs more and as I see it is more of a benefit if you're running a server or a business as it makes it far easier for customers to both find your website and reach you. The downside of that is that with the right tools, people can pinpoint your location and makes it so much easier to hack into your computer.

Not to sure about that aspect of changing over to them, may have to search about for other options or jump on VM's head till they get their act together and sort out their shit and also maybe offer better prices. According to a search for providers in my area, new customers can get the VM deal that I have for only £39 on 2 year contract, so why am I paying £71 as long-standing customer, that Fffing sucks.

I'm with Cerebus on the dangers of static address; they're indistinguishable from dynamic. Don't believe the hype. </publicenemy>

Static is important for things like VPN and such, if you want to run one to get at your internal systems, it becomes easier with a static address.  Having said that, I've been running tunnels towards my dynamic home address for years. It mostly changes when the ISP is merged with another ISP, not at random.

It's more important whether you can get IPv6 or not. If you can, it's a definite benefit and should weigh heavily in favour.

Static is important. Worst case with zen there's a button in the control panel which is "get a new static address" which is great for when you've been hellbanned somewhere . I've had the same IP address for about 6 years now and this is advantageous as I'm hard coded in our AWS NACLs and SGs now. But the key advantage is that it increases the trust that third party SSO has when you sign in. That means when you sign in somewhere else it's easier for it to be suspicious

They support IPv6 but you have to ask to get it turned on. I have it enabled.

I'm super super busy for 2-3 days so will probably be missing discord tomorrow  . I may have died if I don't post on Sunday as doing 25km hill challenge tomorrow   .

[Cerebus]

@bd139,
Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage, it costs more and as I see it is more of a benefit if you're running a server or a business as it makes it far easier for customers to both find your website and reach you. The downside of that is that with the right tools, people can pinpoint your location and makes it so much easier to hack into your computer.

Don't believe the movies. There is not a database of IP addresses that allows you to instantly geolocate someone. Anyone who tries to geolocate me via my fixed IP address gets the physical address of A&A in Bracknell. As to "easier to hack" - if one's security stance relies on one's IP address changing once in a while then one is also the kind of person who eschews body armour in a shooting war for a wet paper bag. If someone wants to hack you they don't give a flying fuck whether you're on a fixed or a dynamic IP address.

Google sort of does have that database.  They keep track of IP addresses along with the metadata of those with location services turned on.
I have a dynamic IP address that changes daily.  I do not have any devices with location services turned on; maybe SWMBO does have location services turned on.
Just now, I did a google search.  The location shown on the footer of the results page is within 50km based on similar IP addresses...

Erm, exactly. 50km is not a movie scenario where the comely blonde female detective says "Can you track his IP address?" and the geek with the Goth/RPG fixation says "Sure" and their computer zooms in on a map with a street address and the IP address next to a flashing beacon and the geek says "They're in the back southeast corner of the 3rd floor apartment at 123, 45th Street.".

The location that they have for your IP address is in the colocation site where the carrier grade NAT router is that your connection passes through, found by averaging out all the location data that people have been stupid enough to let leak.

[cyclin_al]

Heads up Dwagon, and any other Canucks that 3D print.
It looks like CanadaComputers has all their 3D filaments on half price clearance....

https://www.canadacomputers.com/promotions/here-comes-the-clearance-sale

[Kosmic]

Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage...

I'm paying a supplement for a fixed IP address because otherwise my ISP cuts and reestablishes all connections once every 24 hours, changing the IP address in the process. As luck would have it, this would always occur while I was recording or listening to some internet radio program.

For this reason, dynDNS has been invented. A variation can be used together with AVM and their Fritz! routers.
I'm running several VPN tunnels based on this services. Works fine.

early 2000 I paid an one time fee of 30$ to have access to dynDNS pro service for ever 

Even after being bought by Oracle they are still honoring their previous engagement and I still have access to the service even if I'm not paying anything (well I paid 20 years ago).

[Vince]

<SNIP>

They look like "Belling Lee" coaxial connectors.
In France they were called "9.52" connectors. 9.52mm being the size. Check the internal diameter of the socket. If it is about 9.5mm that is conformation. Adaptors to BNC are available
https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg01745/adapto-bnc-s-to-tv-coax-p/dp/AV15293?

Trying to sum everything up in one post to save B/W / reduce traffic a bit !

Thanks Robert and Shakal for all the good info !!!! 

Knowing there are biscuits in my Wobulator somehow make me hungry now ! DO thy come with chocolate chips ?! 

Thanks for the link for the BNC adapters, will go buy a few of them, especially as they appear quit cheap !

So looking at the band selector, it makes sense now. Indeed a TV test set as you said... the two positions are noted " Fi " and " F7 " I guess Fi means "Intermediate frequency", and F7 must be TV channel 7, as it would be consistent with the table of available channels depicted in the schematic ShakalNokturn linked to.

If there was only one channel then I guess this means the Wobulator was bough/used by TV station techs of that particular channel. If it belonged to an independent technician / TV guy, I guess he would have a whole slew of biscuits in order to be able to work on any channel/ station.

So basically that means I got something I have not use for ?!    Will keep it anyway as it's in such nice condition, almost new !
... but I might still keep an eye open for a more general purpose HF signal source of the same make and vintage, as it would probably be more versatile, easier / more intuitive to operate, yet in a more compact/lighter/more manageable form factor 

[mnementh]

(SNIP)

- 1) Change the attenuator board to the TDS724A  and flip the TDS520A with reduced price (eventually sponsor a student/forum member for a token plus shipping, PM me in this situation, I have the packaging saved, tomorrow it cold leave to you).

- 2) Flip the TDS520A as a perfectly working device for some extra shekels and wait another nine years until a ceramic section will be available.

- 3) Flip them both in the most profitable configuration, you have enough scopes.


So before attaching some pictures to help you decide, thank you for your support and reading this loooong post.

Cheers,
DC1MC

There is another option... you could just cut yourself loose from 9 years of 724A misery and shift it as-is, or part it out for the most crucial spares, then give a huge sigh of relief and be thankful you now have a working, apparently low-mileage, recently cal'd 520A.

mnem
 

[cyclin_al]

4x dc-dc buck convertor modules, 2.5A, 4-30V in, 1.5-30V out (that must be a typo, it has a minimum 1.5V drop so 28.5 would be the max output) @£1.29 each shipped, only ordered them yesterday afternoon! These are for making some usb charger ports in places that don't have them.

That reminds me that I need a few of those, the smaller size the better.
Do you mind sharing how they work out, since the price was so cheap, and the seller?

[capt bullshot]

This strange thing happened today to me, usually it doesn't go like this most of the time, I just heard stories, but finally it happened to me as well and now I really need your friendly and professional TEA advice, I'm in a bit of a pinch here. Please read to the and and advise from your gentle kindness  .

- 1) Change the attenuator board to the TDS724A  and flip the TDS520A with reduced price (eventually sponsor a student/forum member for a token plus shipping, PM me in this situation, I have the packaging saved, tomorrow it cold leave to you).

- 2) Flip the TDS520A as a perfectly working device for some extra shekels and wait another nine years until a ceramic section will be available.

- 3) Flip them both in the most profitable configuration, you have enough scopes.

- 4) Follow the TEA spirit: Get a larger apartment


On a first glance the only difference between TDS724 and TDS520 is the colour screen. This Tek NuColor is fascinating, always wanted to have one. Given how often I use that TDS580 of mine (hacked to colour output on the VGA port, it's a TDS784 with internal B/W screen now), and how many channels are active at the same time, I don't miss the colour screen in practical work, and I really don't use this boat anchor often. So if you really don't want to keep both of them, keep the one that is in better overall shape, no matter if colour or B/W.

[AVGresponding]

So now the moment you  were all waiting for, due to the small apartment where I'm living one of the TDS scopes HAS to go, there is literally no place for it, so I'm dong this poll of what should I do, please answer in your comment with the number of the option:

- 1) Change the attenuator board to the TDS724A  and flip the TDS520A with reduced price (eventually sponsor a student/forum member for a token plus shipping, PM me in this situation, I have the packaging saved, tomorrow it cold leave to you).

- 2) Flip the TDS520A as a perfectly working device for some extra shekels and wait another nine years until a ceramic section will be available.

- 3) Flip them both in the most profitable configuration, you have enough scopes.



Cheers,
DC1MC

Seems obvious to me, but maybe we have different criteria for such things. Fix the 724, flip the 520.

The 724A has a colour screen, 1Gs/s, 4 channels, bigger sample memory, 50kpts basic, up to 4Mpts with the 2M option.
The 520A has mono screen, 500Ms/s, 2 channels, 50kpts because it has the 1M option.

The only possible advantage I can see for the 520 is the 12-bit adc in Hi-Res mode (is that real 12-bit or some interleaving trick with the 8-bit adc's for 2 channels?).

[mansaxel]

Yes Fifth republic is the current one and has been the longest lived so far !  But it's out of breath and many have been speaking for some time to switch a 6th republic !!!   

Isn't the Third Republic the longest post-monarchy? Still?

The Fifth Republic is France's third-longest-lasting political regime, after the hereditary and feudal monarchies of the Ancien Régime (Late Middle Ages – 1792) and the parliamentary Third Republic (1870–1940). The Fifth Republic will overtake the Third Republic as the second-longest-lasting regime and the longest-lasting French republic by 11 July 2028.

I thought so. After all, I spent an afternoon reading up on the succession of republics just to be certain some weeks ago. I'd been reading about the Sère de Rivières fortress system put in place after the 1870 war, and wanted some political context.

[mnementh]

Heads up Dwagon, and any other Canucks that 3D print.
It looks like CanadaComputers has all their 3D filaments on half price clearance....

https://www.canadacomputers.com/promotions/here-comes-the-clearance-sale

Thanks for the heads-up!

Yeah, it looks like most of their half-price filament is MakerBot which is rapaciously overpriced; even at half-price I can still get similar cheaper next day off Amazon, and be reasonably sure it hasn't been sitting on a shelf since before COVID borked everything retail.

I've bought a few things from them; they're pretty good for a brick & mortar. But that filament is a great big steaming pile of nope!!! from here.

mnem
 

[mansaxel]

Erm, exactly. 50km is not a movie scenario where the comely blonde female detective says "Can you track his IP address?" and the geek with the Goth/RPG fixation says "Sure" and their computer zooms in on a map with a street address and the IP address next to a flashing beacon and the geek says "They're in the back southeast corner of the 3rd floor apartment at 123, 45th Street.".

That only happens if the IPv4 address is from the Hollywood allocation block, starting with 320.0.0.0/8 and up. (Of course an 8-bit byte can reach a value of 300+ in decimal. In the USA everything is bigger, so their bits hold much more data! 

[Cerebus]

The only possible advantage I can see for the 520 is the 12-bit adc in Hi-Res mode (is that real 12-bit or some interleaving trick with the 8-bit adc's for 2 channels?).

Hi-Res is nothing more sophisticated than averaging. They just keep the ADC running at full tilt in 8 bits, average every n consecutive samples and call that one sample at a lower effective sampling rate.

[Specmaster]

@bd139,
Looking into the ZEN package in more depth, they give you a static IP address, I'm not so sure as that's an advantage, it costs more and as I see it is more of a benefit if you're running a server or a business as it makes it far easier for customers to both find your website and reach you. The downside of that is that with the right tools, people can pinpoint your location and makes it so much easier to hack into your computer.

Don't believe the movies. There is not a database of IP addresses that allows you to instantly geolocate someone. Anyone who tries to geolocate me via my fixed IP address gets the physical address of A&A in Bracknell. As to "easier to hack" - if one's security stance relies on one's IP address changing once in a while then one is also the kind of person who eschews body armour in a shooting war for a wet paper bag. If someone wants to hack you they don't give a flying fuck whether you're on a fixed or a dynamic IP address.

Thanks for the input, but here's the thing, I genuinely don't know the advantages and disadvantages as I'm neither into programming or involved with any form of IT. So what I did was to use Google so no movies or anything else was involved, and I deliberately avoided sites such as internet providers who have a vested interest in promoting whatever their system is. For instance Avast says suggested similar to what I posted https://www.avast.com/c-static-vs-dynamic-ip-addresses and as such, they have no personal axe to grind so to speak.