What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[mtdoc]

How's your one going ?

Great so far. The real test will come later this summer when i buck out several winter downed trees on my property.

Thanks for the videos. I ‘d seen the longer one when I was researching the saw. The electronics geek side of me would love to get a hold of that software for tinkering and future repairs, but the old school two-stroke mechanic side of me just wishes for a simple, no electronics, traditionally aspirated and easy to repair/rebuild saw.

[cat87]

Just got my hands on some old LMT gear (german manufacturer). One is a  Current meter, apparently for some photodiode heads (which I don't have) and a "colormeter".
The units feel kind of like they were made in a barn somewhere,  held together with some screws and some prayers. But they lasted this long, so...

The current meter version I have goes to 10e-11 (at least that's what the specs say) but I have yet to measure something. Cap leakage tests, anyone? 
Enough chatting. Impromptuu teardown coming up.

[cat87]

Continued

[tautech]

How's your one going ?

Great so far. The real test will come later this summer when i buck out several winter downed trees on my property.

Thanks for the videos. I ‘d seen the longer one when I was researching the saw. The electronics geek side of me would love to get a hold of that software for tinkering and future repairs, but the old school two-stroke mechanic side of me just wishes for a simple, no electronics, traditionally aspirated and easy to repair/rebuild saw.

Yeah I know, me too.
AFAIK all the bigger saws still have carby's.
They are this way to meet various antipollution requirements all over the world as that 'newish' air scavenge system to the muffler needs a lean exhaust gasses to do the after burn in the muffler.
But a chainsaw that needs to be 'green',  they cut down trees FFS ! 

I'll see if I can get an old carb for dissection. 

[Mr.B]

Purchased yesterday.
Cat S60 smartphone with Flir thermal camera - NZD 1099
It will not be used as a phone, just a thermal camera in the workshop with the ability to email the images.
First image taken is of my little girl...

[Terry01]

I got these delivered today!

I decided to give the Diamond sharpener a go as opposed to the usual whetstone.

I also decided to give the Chem Wik a try as i have been using the 5 rolls for £3 stuff from China with mixed results! I will report the success or failure of both products later today!

So I have used the Diamond sharpener to tidy up and sharpen a few of my different knives now and I am well impressed!
I found it was awesome for sharpening smaller lightweight blades that I use around my bench and the house that weren't in too bad shape before I started. They more or less just needed the edge already on them tidied and sharpened up a little. I think it is fine for removing small burrs and dents on smaller blades but if you were talking about axe's and proper 12" outdoor knives you'd need a bigger more substantial sharpener.
The biggest hobby blade I sharpened was a 6" lock back that was in ok shape before I started and it is now razor sharp again. I also re-edged and sharpened my swiss-army knife with both a 1-1/2" and a 2-1/2" blades on it which are both also razor sharp again and I have a small 2-1/2" utility type blade which is sharpened to perfection again.
All of these were in ok shape before I started.
I gave one of the 12" kitchen knives a quick going over but this also was in great shape before I started so it is hard to say if I improved it any.

Verdict.
           
Ideal for smaller blades that are not to bent out of shape or bigger blades that only need a couple of passes to re-sharpen. It does do what it's supposed to do with very little effort. It's quite impressive when you see it working as it's very lightweight and it is steel blades it's sharpening.
For just a few quid you can't go wrong!

I would recommend this item to have in your drawer or bag if you use small knives at all.

[frozenfrogz]

Purchased yesterday.
Cat S60 smartphone with Flir thermal camera - NZD 1099
It will not be used as a phone, just a thermal camera in the workshop with the ability to email the images.
First image taken is of my little girl...

Cool! I have the same phone (bought it used though). Only thing that I do not like about it: The main camera module stopped working. I bought a replacement module, that one was good for a couple of days, then it also stopped working - as of today I have no clue why. Might be a faulty connector or something totally different. It is not actually a serviceable phone in that regard.
It is still a neat helper in the workshop anyway!

Wishing you lots of fun with the new phone and your little girl of course!
Here is a picture of my dog after an exhausting day in the workshop. He's turning two in a month.
The father is a Pug, the mother part Parson Jack Russell, part Pit Bull (?).

[GreyWoolfe]

Purchased yesterday.
Cat S60 smartphone with Flir thermal camera - NZD 1099
It will not be used as a phone, just a thermal camera in the workshop with the ability to email the images.
First image taken is of my little girl...

Cool! I have the same phone (bought it used though). Only thing that I do not like about it: The main camera module stopped working. I bought a replacement module, that one was good for a couple of days, then it also stopped working - as of today I have no clue why. Might be a faulty connector or something totally different. It is not actually a serviceable phone in that regard.
It is still a neat helper in the workshop anyway!

Wishing you lots of fun with the new phone and your little girl of course!
Here is a picture of my dog after an exhausting day in the workshop. He's turning two in a month.
The father is a Pug, the mother part Parson Jack Russell, part Pit Bull (?).

Cute pup.

[JaspaJami]

Arrived today. Both pass self test without problems but 33220A have some problems with rotary encoder. Seems that im not only one who have those: http://www.dasarodesigns.com/projects/cleaning-the-encoders-in-agilent-33220a-function-generators/

320€ totally posted to home. Not bad.

[rsjsouza]

A mouse.



(Despite the cable and being PS/2, I like the lightness of this particular model. Also, it was in "like new" condition with even the original wire strap on the cord)

[PA0PBZ]

Despite the cable and being PS/2...

Ali express, under $1

[Mr.B]

The main camera module stopped working.

That is a bit disappointing.
I hope mine lasts.

...He's turning two in a month.

My little girl Xerox will be 13y in October.

Cute pup.

Yes, agreed.

Below is my boy, Ubix.

[Mr. Scram]

Arrived today. Both pass self test without problems but 33220A have some problems with rotary encoder. Seems that im not only one who have those: http://www.dasarodesigns.com/projects/cleaning-the-encoders-in-agilent-33220a-function-generators/

320€ totally posted to home. Not bad.

Wow, that's a great price. Just a 34401A can cost a lot more than both of these.

[rsjsouza]

Despite the cable and being PS/2...

Ali express, under $1

Despite the connector is a USB-A, they are passive adapters that do not work on the vast majority of PS/2 peripherals - only if the peripheral itself has internal circuitry that performs the dual USB/PS/2 protocol.

At any rate, the machines I have still feature the PS/2 ports.

[bitseeker]

Arrived today. Both pass self test without problems but 33220A have some problems with rotary encoder. Seems that im not only one who have those: http://www.dasarodesigns.com/projects/cleaning-the-encoders-in-agilent-33220a-function-generators/

320€ totally posted to home. Not bad.

Wow, that's a great price. Just a 34401A can cost a lot more than both of these.

Yeah, no kidding. Good score, JaspaJami.

[rsjsouza]

Isn't PS/2 serial? I remember those adapters to D-sub serial ports.

Yes, PS/2 is a serial port; however, it is different than TIA/EIA-232-F in voltage levels and data communications. To convert between the two, some circuit is required.

[McBryce]

Despite the connector is a USB-A, they are passive adapters that do not work on the vast majority of PS/2 peripherals - only if the peripheral itself has internal circuitry that performs the dual USB/PS/2 protocol.

At any rate, the machines I have still feature the PS/2 ports.

Isn't it the other way around? The USB driver/chipset in the PC has to support the legacy PS/2 protocol. The PS/2 mice I've used with these adapters were all designed well before USB was around. In the other direction (forcing a USB mouse into PS/2 mode) requires the USB mouse to support PS/2 mode.

McBryce.

[beanflying]

TGIF 

Got bored unpacking and putting away 100+ lines of 'stuff'

Came across this clone LOL Sheild among it all and decided it was beer o'clock. Two to solder it and a third because it is done 

[Bendba]

A scanning electron microscope, complete with what appears to be complete schematics, for $10.
Yes, $10. Yes, I picked it up. And yes, it is the real thing, not just a picture.

Of course I'll have to do a separate thread about it, with heaps of photo, and pictures once it's set up and working.





Oh! And this polysomnograph, nearly forgot about it with the excitement of the microscope. Unfortunately without a chart recorder. But all the manuals for all the different amplifiers.

[Jeroen3]

Ok, I'll bite.
Where would you possibly need a polysomnograph for?

[Bendba]

No need to bite.
Just personal interest in human machine interfacing using EMG and EOG (via EEG would be nice but a bit too complex and unreliable to my liking. Even though, I'll probably try the EEG just for fun)

I'll probably try it as a lie detector too, for fun.

[rsjsouza]

Despite the connector is a USB-A, they are passive adapters that do not work on the vast majority of PS/2 peripherals - only if the peripheral itself has internal circuitry that performs the dual USB/PS/2 protocol.

At any rate, the machines I have still feature the PS/2 ports.

Isn't it the other way around? The USB driver/chipset in the PC has to support the legacy PS/2 protocol. The PS/2 mice I've used with these adapters were all designed well before USB was around. In the other direction (forcing a USB mouse into PS/2 mode) requires the USB mouse to support PS/2 mode.

McBryce.

I don't recall seeing a PC whose USB ports would recognize a PS/2 peripheral via this passive adapter, but I couldn't possibly know all the systems.

What I remember is the transitional period when the "hybrid" mouse would be fitted with a PS/2 connector so it could be used with older PCs as well - after all, the new models of mice would need to be useful in a broad range of systems, especially in the early days where BIOS did not support USB peripherals.

[McBryce]

My "half knowledge" comes from a project I did a few years back to allow PS/2 and PS/2 compatible USB mice to connect to an 8-bit computer joystick port (For the Amstrad CPC range). If basic USB mice are connected to it they are recognised and configured to PS/2 mode. This was done by sending a series of commands to force the mouse into PS/2 mode during initialisation.

On the PC side, my old PC (WinXP) had a PS/2 mouse connected via one of those adapters to the USB port and worked fine for many years with several different mice.

Here's a picture (prototype) of the CPC device I designed. There were two versions, one with a PS/2 socket, the other (below) with a USB socket.

McBryce.

[bob225]

Back in the day most keyboards and mice come with usb adapters. we had few 100 adapters floating around the network/IT store room - iirc the most usb - PS2 adapters are not active anyway, its just a pin changer

Its not a true ps2 mouse unless it has a ball 

[Johnny10]

Bendba   Now that is cool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love it, I want them too !!