What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[beanflying]

Lucky I live in the land of VK3. I have avoided talking HAM with a nearby one in VK3ZQB who I know fairly well as it is what he lives sleeps and breathes  I should get a marine operators licence minimum and depending on how serious I get with Drones look at an Air one too 

Like all things, in moderation.

Ham radio does attract a 'certain type' and it's quite an experience when you meet them.

for me, it's a way to legitimise my hobby, I've been tinkering with radio for decades and I really enjoy building stuff (if and when I ever get time) plus there's lots of ways to not have to actually talk to people yet still make use of the licence

My name is BF and I have a problem  Apart from my TEA one I have a very very major R/C and Coffee problem without adding others to it 

[CJay]

Lucky I live in the land of VK3. I have avoided talking HAM with a nearby one in VK3ZQB who I know fairly well as it is what he lives sleeps and breathes  I should get a marine operators licence minimum and depending on how serious I get with Drones look at an Air one too 

Like all things, in moderation.

My name is BF and I have a problem  Apart from my TEA one I have a very very major R/C and Coffee problem without adding others to it 

Nah, dig in, you can use it to justify and enable your TEA, think of all those lovely test applications and new equipment you need to buy

[beanflying]

Come to the dark side Luke - sorry beanflying!
Seriously - the ACMA has just changed the way you get your Ham licence in  VK land. It used to be the WIA - now it is a commercial arm of the Uni of Tasmania - Marine licencing guys. I am the past president of the North East Radio Club in south Australia - we have a couple of guys who are examiners and always keen to get more guys out there.
In South Australia - the most technical ham group is the Adelaide Radio Experimenters Group - guests are welcome to any of the meetings of any ham clubs.
Regards Rob

Lucky I live in the land of VK3. I have avoided talking HAM with a nearby one in VK3ZQB who I know fairly well as it is what he lives sleeps and breathes  I should get a marine operators licence minimum and depending on how serious I get with Drones look at an Air one too 

For some funny I thought you were VK5 - bad news though, there are even more Hams there ! HeHe.
There  are lots of interesting hobbies competing for our time (and $) I suppose we are really spoilt by the choices but it can get confusing - too much choice.
Rob

The Ex is VK5 Marion and still far to close for comfort.

Having fun with the little SDR dongle eBay auction: #172813499296 and the Discone will do for 'now' 

[VK5RC]

@beanflying - essential to avoid vk5 territory!
Re Hams - it is a broad 'church', some just passed the foundation - others were boffins in the Defense Dept. Generally I have found them a good hearted bunch.
PS Have you tried listening to FT8?

[beanflying]

@beanflying - essential to avoid vk5 territory!
Re Hams - it is a broad 'church', some just passed the foundation - others were boffins in the Defense Dept. Generally I have found them a good hearted bunch.
PS Have you tried listening to FT8?

I would need to add an up converter to the current dongle or go for a different SDR to get into the HF bands plenty to play with above 30Meg at this stage.

[JxR]

This came in the mail yesterday...

It's an interesting device.  A 2-quadrant power supply that can sink up to 3A of current on both channels.  It does this automatically if the voltage on the input is higher than the set output (up to the set current limit).  It has a dedicated CR mode as well.  Additionally, it has an ominous red glow when viewed from the side.  Apparently one of the engineers at R&S is Sith lord, manipulating the designs from the inside. 

[thm_w]

This came in the mail yesterday...

It's an interesting device.  A 2-quadrant power supply that can sink up to 3A of current on both channels.  It does this automatically if the voltage on the input is higher than the set output (up to the set current limit).  It has a dedicated CR mode as well.  Additionally, it has an ominous red glow when viewed from the side.  Apparently one of the engineers at R&S is Sith lord, manipulating the designs from the inside. 

Cool, seems like a modernized version of the NGMO2: https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/ca/product/ngmo2-productstartpage_63493-8304.html
The screen is a much needed improvement, looks great.

[JxR]

Cool, seems like a modernized version of the NGMO2: https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/ca/product/ngmo2-productstartpage_63493-8304.html
The screen is a much needed improvement, looks great.

Nice find.  Your right it does look very similar after checking out the NGMO2 datasheet.  On the NGL the limits are a tad higher, and the resolution and accuracy is better.  But the NGMO2 blows it out of the water on analysis and sampling rates: 10us vs 100ms and there is no kind of graphing at all atm. 

There are no set wave forms, but there is an arbitrary builder with up to 4k points, but 100ms between them I believe.  As far as logging goes though, the NGL max limit on log size is just the size of the usb drive you plug into it.  It also currently has a little under 1GB of free memory, which you have available for logs as well.  I'm hoping they will use some of the space for new things as the firmware matures.

[Falkra]

The brand is shown as Hiltand. However, I purchased one and the unit I received appears to be a genuine Kunkin. The unit performs well, the battery capacity function is especially nice and allows setting a low voltage limit, CC and CV work well. CR mode has some strange behavior, I need to test more to see what is going on.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/KP184-DC-Electronic-Load-Battery-Capacity-Tester-RS485-232-400W-150V-40A-AC110-220V-Professional-Battery/32949838100.html?

I have one and I am very satisfied with it as well.

[Kjelt]

So again by visiting the metal scrapyard I could save an "antique" electronic device from destruction.
This time it is a Knick S12 millivolt precision power supply.
You want to know more ?

-> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/knick-s12-saved-from-destruction/msg2418141/#msg2418141

[kripton2035]

a weller wsa350 fume extractor

[kripton2035]

a used hameg 407-2

[Gary350z]

a weller wsa350 fume extractor

Let me know how it works.
Is it worth buying?
How does it compare to the Hakko FA-400?
https://www.hakkousa.com/products/fume-extraction/hakko-fa-400-smoke-absorber/hakko-fa400-smoke-absorber.html

[kripton2035]

Let me know how it works.
Is it worth buying?
How does it compare to the Hakko FA-400?

don't know, I don't have the hakko ! I found it more noisy than I thought it would be, but it's completely acceptable.
it absorbs smoke, but you have to be not too far, 20cm I would say, or it absorbs very less.

[sab]

I replaced the stock fan with a low noise one (model no: 4800N from Papst) and that quietened it down a lot.

[McBryce]

a weller wsa350 fume extractor

Let me know how it works.
Is it worth buying?
How does it compare to the Hakko FA-400?
https://www.hakkousa.com/products/fume-extraction/hakko-fa-400-smoke-absorber/hakko-fa400-smoke-absorber.html

I have a spare one of these that I don't use if you are interested. The filter is like new because it never got used.

McBryce.

Gesendet von meinem Motorola DynaTAC 8000x mit Tapatalk

[GreyWoolfe]

I am unashamedly a Ryobi fanboy.  I have a circular saw, a table saw and the 1 Plus Hammer drill and right angle drill and a bunch of attachments.  At home depot yesterday, we saw a promotion that was 2 3AH HP batteries, charger and case for $99 and pick a select tool for free.  I grabbed the 3 speed impact driver to go with it as I have wanted one.  On top of that I got to pick my Father's Day gift.   A special purchase Ryobi 1 Plus rotary tool.  Has a motor base, flexible cable and head and uses the 1 Plus batteries.  I love Mrs GreyWoolfe and I love living Green!!!

[julianhigginson]

a weller wsa350 fume extractor

Let me know how it works.
Is it worth buying?
How does it compare to the Hakko FA-400?
https://www.hakkousa.com/products/fume-extraction/hakko-fa-400-smoke-absorber/hakko-fa400-smoke-absorber.html

these square black things are better than nothing, I think.. they seem to work, in that they appear to suck in smoke and push out smoke free "air" out the back -  but I have no idea if there's anything in the solder fumes that you can't see, but is still a problem. Of course if there was, you wouldn't know what they were doing to that....

The issue with using these is you need it right up where you're soldering, and in my experience with ones like this you pretty much need them leaning *over* the workpiece... I have seen a variant of these on an articulated arm, which would be a huge advantage if you were wanting the best option to go for. because it'd be much easier to pull in to solder and push away to inspect, and not be taking up actual desk space right at the point where you're working.

Just understand that there's no magic - air sucking devices pull air from all around, so you don't get that much reach from any air inlet where all smoke gets pulled away.  All solder fume solutions require you having something at least 4 inches from where you're soldering (I have an under desk metcal thing with two hoses that's like a special purpose stationary vacuum cleaner (one hose inlet plugged, one hose in use) and even that needs the hose 4 inches from the workpiece.

[technix]

I bought a used AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB reference graphics card for abut US$80 today. It comes with a factory overclock making it performing on par with the RX 580 in my Hackintosh. This card is used in my dual processor workstation replacing the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which is suffering under my 4K monitor.

[Johnny10]

A Tektronix DMM 4050 that works!

[Vgkid]

ESI 240c

[maginnovision]

ESI 1063 Volt-Ohm box. Only 275 so I figured why not. Also a Keithley 155 but it's not for me, I did buy it though.

[GregDunn]

Years ago, when our workplace was bought out and the assets plundered/stripped, I found a DEC KDJ11 CPU board (PDP-11/83) in the trash.  Someone had already ripped out the processor hybrid, more than likely to reclaim the gold.

I was thinking about putting it in a shadowbox for display this week when I pondered, "wonder if I can find a CPU chip online for less than ridiculous money..."  The boards themselves sell for thousands of dollars today, but the processor itself can be had for surprisingly little.  I made a lowball offer on the cheapest one I could find and it was accepted.

So here is my frankenCPU board, all ready to put on display.  I'll probably never own a working PDP-11 (unless you count the SIMH emulator and blinkenlight display), but this is close enough for me.

[Kjelt]

Who in their right mind will pay thousands of $ for only a single pcb of many needed for a piece of computer antique ?

[GregDunn]

There's a lot of stuff on the Bay of Evil which is priced at ridiculous levels....  I suppose that since these haven't been made for 30 years or more, some vendors think they can charge an arbitrary amount for one.  In all fairness, the board has a large amount of unobtainium on it so if you really want a working one, you'll have to allow for that.

The prices do decline, though, when people stop buying them; they seem lower now than they were the last time I looked - some as little as a couple of hundred $.