Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

This sucks. I thought we were done with this crap.  Could be upwards of 6 inches or more and later the wind will kick up and blow it into drifts. Lots of fun.



Starting Monday supposedly temperatures will rise into the 50's F and near 60 F. I won't hold my breath. 

Also, at least here tonight we go back to DST.

Let's face it, God's just got it in for you. 

Not sure about the Almighty but if you said it was Mother Nature I'd completely agree since women have been the bane of my existence. 

I did consider writing "Goddess"...

[med6753]

Huh?  What happened to the existing snow?  We got about 5 inches, and the wind is starting to pick up.  Just in time to go to ski lessons.
However, our snow banks are still 4 feet high...  there is no well head visible at my place.

Our snow pack completely melted except for the piles pushed up by the plows. Ground was bare and dry. Ice melted off ponds. I even heard one or two spring peepers yesterday. And now this. 

I stuck my head out of the window the day before yesterday and could smell "new mown grass" drifting my way from the park down the road.

That won't happen here until mid to late April. 

[m k]

I think you missed the point, the item is not sold so no money paid, no gain no fraud.

The "no gain no fraud" doesn't wash, as anyone jailed for attempted fraud will tell you. [Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and previously common law]

The only time it is illegal is if there is a single real bidder and the auctioneer does not sell as soon as the reserve is met. No one is making the real bidder bid more.  I agree it's not good practice  but its done. The moral issue is that it could make the unwary bidder think th item is worh more because someone else is bidding - auction fever.

Yes exactly, that's the deception and it's sufficient for mens rhea that one is reckless as to the consequences of an actus rheus. Although the auctioneer might be intending to merely 'puff up' to the reserve and not intending to inflate the price beyond what is reasonable, if they do so it's misrepresentation caused purely by their acts.

Also remember consumer and retail law does not apply to auctions in the UK.

Yes, but criminal law does.

It is indeed very similar to proxy bidding on an item with a reserve on ebay. For example consider an item listed at 99p start and £60 reserve.  If I Bid £10 the bid stays at 99p and reserve not met. If someone else bids £9.99 it goes to me at £10 but still reserve not met. If I then increse my limit to £55 nothing changes, but if I increase to £65 the bid will jump to £60 to me with reserve met even if no one else bids.

The difference is that you know that you are bidding up to find the reserve and deliberately accepting the risk of placing a bid knowing that you have granted eBay permission to place proxy bids on your behalf. If the reserve is crazy you won't bid up to it, and nobody else's bids are convincing you that you have underestimated the true price of the item in question. That's a world of difference from the auctioneer inserting a fictitious bid with the hope that a real bidder will follow.

Any way you cut this if the auctioneer deliberate drives up the price, that is what they are doing, deliberately driving up the price. Their rôle is to be an impartial arbiter between the sellers and buyers. As soon as they act partially, while still presenting an apparent facade of impartiality, they are engaging in deception. That is behaviour that reaches the standard of criminality, ask anyone who's passed their criminal law and jurisprudence exams.

Hiding a reserve is not attempted fraud because they are not expecting a bid. If it is bid up to the reserve and sold the auctioneer / seller is not trying to make more money so no benefit and no intention to get benefit so no fraud or attempted fraud. If the bidder does not know what their limit is that is their probem.

I can't find anything to say that the presence of a reserve has to be declared. It is very clear however that the value of a reserve does not have to be revealed.
Another perspective:
An item that I want has a reserve (value not to be revealed to bidders, but lets say £50) I want the item at up to £100. Other bidders drop out at £30. Unless the auctioneer bids to the back wall I don't get to buy the item so I loose out. If he bids the wall until I hit reserve I win because I get the item and the reserve confidentiality is preserved. Yes it could be abused and tht would be fraud.
I  guess we will have agree to disagree. I can't prove a negative and I'm not going looking for case law to prove your point 

Side topic from over a decade ago.
3/4 of a million are living through auctions, possibly a different number today.
https://www.res.org.uk/resources-page/how-to-set-reserve-prices-in-auctions.html

BTW,
AllSurplus is selling an old HP pen plotter.
Unfortunately some extra stuff is included.
https://www.allsurplus.com/asset/325/14573

Upcoming PP auctions have also some printers.
Vinyl options seems to be still partially valued.
Equipnet have some 3D-models.

Seems that AllSurplus doesn't like to hassle very much with average Joes.
Or maybe they are doing some cleaning.

Among others

Yokogawa DL708E x2
https://www.allsurplus.com/asset/323/14573

HP 4142B x2 (not empty)
https://www.allsurplus.com/asset/322/14573

HP 3457A x3
https://www.allsurplus.com/asset/309/14573

HP 34401A 1+1
https://www.allsurplus.com/asset/315/14573

[mnementh]

Someone please tell me this idiot is trolling: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/heres-a-gas-pressure-vessel-can-i-get-some-advice/


In other news, I haven't actually bought much lately. But I am moving houses relatively soon and will have more space for my lab. 

What others in the thread seem not to understand is that he wants to put materials into an O²-rich environment under pressure, so the tank needs a large opening. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the thing he wants to use isn't safe at even 1/10th the pressure he needs for what he wants to do. Plus, of course, the pure O² under high pressure safety issues, which he is clearly ignorant of just by suggesting such a thing...

Good to see you back, BTW. And good for you having expanded your "Mad Scientist Lair" potential.


mnem

[mnementh]

This sucks. I thought we were done with this crap.  Could be upwards of 6 inches or more and later the wind will kick up and blow it into drifts. Lots of fun.



Starting Monday supposedly temperatures will rise into the 50's F and near 60 F. I won't hold my breath. 

Also, at least here tonight we go back to DST.

Let's face it, God's just got it in for you. 

Not sure about the Almighty but if you said it was Mother Nature I'd completely agree since women have been the bane of my existence. 

I did consider writing "Goddess"...

Started aboot a hour ago. It doesn't show in the pic, but right now it's blowing sideways...

mnem
Guess I need to go get gas for the snowblower... 

[Cerebus]

Side topic from over a decade ago.
3/4 of a million are living through auctions, possibly a different number today.

Missing a couple of salient facts there: that figure was for eBay alone, and was only for the USA.

Given that's, as you say, 10 years ago, the increased prevalence of auction sites (Vinted, Shpock, et al.) and the rest of the world as well as the USA, I imagine that figure is much, much higher today. I can't immediately find any contemporary figures, but would be curious to know.

[AVGresponding]

[tautech]

Discord prod !
Bd is in residence again. 

[Robert763]

TEA!
A package arrived this afternoon. Its my Metrix MX51EX.
Not great packing but it is an a carry case so OK. This meter is clearly completly unused    The leads are still tied up and even the spare fuses are there. No sign of abuse around the clip together case.
Sold as "in full working order". Thats odd, it won't turn on  First thing - check the battery.  No wonder the case has no marks, it's got what must be the original battery which has leaked  The leakage is totally dried up.
Clean up contacts and no change.
So I crack open the case. Actually virtually no mess. But the back of the PCB under the battery terminals is potted in a blob of clear plastic. This has 3 100   MELF resisors in it. Clearly part of the explosive proof design. No two component faults, one of these resistors short and a short elsewhere can cause more than 45 mA to flow or 0.4 W to be dissipated. However I'm not seeing 9 V anywhere on the PCB. If the fault is under the plastic that is the EX rating ruined.
A resistance check from battery terminal to the track coming out from the blob shows 300   
Hang on that via looks a bit suspect. A clean and mignification shows a bit of track missing.
Before going further I messaged the seller, no response yet.
So repaired the missing track, did a general cleaning and it now turns on.
The LCD is dim with missing segments. Well that's an easy fix. Cleeaned the zebra strips and burnished the PCB tracks.
Now I have a nice sharp display, BUT, a reading of 5 M on resistance and -220 mV on DC volts with no leads connected  :--in
There is leakage between the battery +ve terminal and the V /  input terminal
So take it apart agian and a very through clean. Scrubbing with water and a drop of detergent, water, 70% IPA and then 99.9% IPA and careful drying with warm air and it  now shows over-range on Ohms and zero o DC Volts. A final rise with IPA and a bake in the oven at 75 degrees C just to be sure. Put it all back together and 
Not bad for £32 shipped but I'll be interested to hear what the seller has to say about it being fully working.....

[Robert763]

More Metrix pics

[Vince]

Hello BD on Discord  !

Lots of stuff going on today... think I will make several posts to keep it reasonable...


First, the Ferisol FRB power socket  : I received it the NOS one from French Ebay... and spent 2 hours today replacing it, a bitch. Back panel on the counter would not come off, something was catching that should not. Removed this and that chassis part, fuse holder, eventually the panel came off, had access to the back of the socket... but still not out of trouble... Impossible to stick an iron deep down that socket, not even in one's wildest dreams. Eventually noticed the socket is designed like the plug : a spring can be removed to take the inner part out the "shell" of the socket, so to speak. Much better, but still not saved because the wires in the counter are so fucking short, plus they sticked TWO wires in both the Neutral and Live cups. No it does not quite fit... eventually managed to do it, hardly pretty of course given the lack of accessibility, but safe and functional so that will be it.
If I ever have to do it again, hopefully most likely never, I would I think just solder 3 pieces of wires to the existing wires on the counter so I can then have long (enough) wires coming out of the counter to solder much more comfortably, as well as having only one single wire per cup, hence let me make a better job as well as keep my sanity.
Once I had put it all back together, tried to shove the plug into that new socket and... doesn't work. The inner part inside the socket was not holding well... wires being too short, apparently I though I had shoved it in all the way before securing the spring... but alas it seemed not ! So take the thing apart again, push harder on the inner part, with one hand, trying to shoved the spring better this time.. a tight fit because of these fucking too short wires ! 
That's called hands on experience they say... experience is painful sometimes...

But I like the result. plug on the cord fixed/tidied up. Socket on the counter replaced... now looks much better and much easier to connect it up. Locking mechanism now works, and I don't need to check the pinout of the socket&plug every time I want to plug the power cord to the counter. I sense a feeling of luxury here...

As part of the required dismantling, I removed one of the rear handles... wow it took a fucking hit ! That counter fell on it's hard something real, real bad. Lucky there were super mega beefy handles at the back, otherwise the counter would not be with us any longer for sure   
That handle was a pig to removed.. two BTR screws to unscrew 1/4 turn by 1/4 turn... and they are long... but at least it's doable.
The other handle at the back, is flapping in the breeze, something severe. Like almost 2mm away from the surface of the cabinet. Needs to tighten its two screws, easy right ? No. Handle is mounted on a plate which the is mounted on the chassis. So you need to remove the plate first, then you get access to the handle per se and can tighten it. Problem is that one of the two BTR screws holding that plate, is.. well, there is no way in hell that you can shove an Allen wrench into the head.. the corner for the main deck is right in front of the screw head ! It is not realistic to move the deck. 6 months labour to take the counter apart. Only realistic way would be to cut the corner of the deck with a Dremel and a cutting disk or something... 
So... I was unable to tighten that freaking handle. The more I work on this counter, the more it's screaming at me : " Don"t bother son, it's too late for me.... ".

A few piccies.

[Vince]

TEA!
A package arrived this afternoon. Its my Metrix MX51EX.
Not great packing but it is an a carry case so OK. This meter is clearly completly unused    The leads are still tied up and even the spare fuses are there. No sign of abuse around the clip together case.
Sold as "in full working order". Thats odd, it won't turn on  First thing - check the battery.  No wonder the case has no marks, it's got what must be the original battery which has leaked  The leakage is totally dried up.
Clean up contacts and no change.
So I crack open the case. Actually virtually no mess. But the back of the PCB under the battery terminals is potted in a blob of clear plastic. This has 3 100   MELF resisors in it. Clearly part of the explosive proof design. No two component faults, one of these resistors short and a short elsewhere can cause more than 45 mA to flow or 0.4 W to be dissipated. However I'm not seeing 9 V anywhere on the PCB. If the fault is under the plastic that is the EX rating ruined.
A resistance check from battery terminal to the track coming out from the blob shows 300   
Hang on that via looks a bit suspect. A clean and mignification shows a bit of track missing.
Before going further I messaged the seller, no response yet.
So repaired the missing track, did a general cleaning and it now turns on.
The LCD is dim with missing segments. Well that's an easy fix. Cleeaned the zebra strips and burnished the PCB tracks.
Now I have a nice sharp display, BUT, a reading of 5 M on resistance and -220 mV on DC volts with no leads connected  :--in
There is leakage between the battery +ve terminal and the V /  input terminal
So take it apart agian and a very through clean. Scrubbing with water and a drop of detergent, water, 70% IPA and then 99.9% IPA and careful drying with warm air and it  now shows over-range on Ohms and zero o DC Volts. A final rise with IPA and a bake in the oven at 75 degrees C just to be sure. Put it all back together and 
Not bad for £32 shipped but I'll be interested to hear what the seller has to say about it being fully working.....

Thanks for the pics and report ! 

I have loads of these meters but never had one bad enough that t track got cut. Interesting the transparent blob at the back, I don't have an exhaustive list of the design differences between Ex models and regular models. I have not taken my 57Ex apart so was cool to see your, even if a different model. They probably used that trick on both Ex models I would imagine.
I have only opened the front/battery compartment on my 547Ex, but I saw a few difference right there anyway. Now tempted to crack it open to see if I ave that blob too ! 
At least they were nice enough to opt for a transparent mixture, so one can see the tracks and components, for visual inspection.

Glad you could bring it back from the dead, it definitely deserves it !! 

[Vince]

Next.

A friend spotted a seller on Leboncoin.fr that had lots of cheap stuff. He was interested in a few items he could shift for a quick profit, but seller would not ship... but turns out he lives a stone throw from me, I mean almost literally : less than 5 kms... 5 minute drive, the next village, neighbouring mine.  I traverse this village at least twice a day to get anywhere. Looking at all the ads from this seller, IO spotted a little something I was interested in... a small lot of random components, for 10 Euros. In the pic it was hard to tell what was what exactly, but I for sure saw a few bags full of brand new LEDs of various colours. Was worth the Euros alone, and I have no LEDs in sotck other the ones I salvaged 30 years ago, so short legs, tired/dim, and not two identical ones... it sucks. This new LEDs would solve that problem 

So I went to pick-up that lot. As for the 4 items my friend wnated, one had already been sold this morning, too late (a little Geiger counter...), 2 more items had suddenly seen an impromptu price increase : " Oh it'(s my daughter who put the ads, but she got teh price wrong ! ".  So my friend decided to give up on these two items. So in the end he got only one single item out of his shopping list... but a cool item !
A modern GPS DO... for 10 Euros ! 
Those Chinesium ones. He said the cost about 90/100 Euros. Cheap I thought.. but 10 Euros is even better ! I need one of course but well, he saw it first ! 
Been running the thing for hours now. Frequency is very stable since the beginning really...  9,999,986 Hz +1/-0 Hz.  just stays there. I don't know the accuracy of that GPSDO but I would hope it's much better than 13 Hz in 10MHz !      So I guess the frequency I see is that of the item base in my old Metrix Nixie counter ! Looks like the oscillator needs to be trimmed ! 

I don't know if the GPS is working oir not. The status LED on the front panel, since cold, keeps displaying a solid yellow colour, but don't know what that means.
In my world, green means all good and red means all bad... so yellow is in-between ! It's not all good... yet not all bad... there is some good, and some bad... I guess the bad is that it fails to synchronize, and the good is that it can talk to the GPS chip locally ?! Who knows ! RTFM yuo say ! I can"t ! There is no model number nor even a manufacturer name no this thing, ZERO ! It's just a black box !!! 
The Power ON LED is troubling too... it lights up green, which is good but... it's blinking  all the time ! 
Status LED for the OCXO seems good : lit up red when cold, then turned off after a few minutes when warmed up. I do get a 10MHz stable output so I guess at least the OCXO itself is good.. bit the GPS part, not so sure...  I did bring the antenna right to the window n the living room, no joy, LED still yellow. A friend told me these crappy antennae are not very sensitive and you need to take them outside in the garden, hoping they would catch the satellites up there... might try that tomorrow to see if that makes a difference...

Also tomorrow, will feed the thing to my Ferisol counter to compare it my Metrix counter, see if it's also as far off. Ferisol has a OCXO at close to 10-9, but the Metrix I am not sure what it's got for a time base... I am not sure it's an OCXO, might just be a regular/bare crystal. Need to check...


Piccies....

[Vince]

Next, and last.

So what did I get in my lot of components exactly ?

Spread it all over the bench and took some notes... here goes :

It's all NIB or in new condition at least.

LEDs :

x100 5mm Blue
x100 5mm Red
x100 5mm Green
x100 5mm Yellow
x100 5mm White high luminosity.
x34 3mm Red high luminosity.

- x60 tactile switches, 20 of 3 different heights (4/5/6mm)
- x4 lovely beefy ceramic power resistors, I just love ceramic resistors, so cute.
- x10 multiturn vertical trim pots.
- x10 9V battery couplers
- x1 10MHz Crystal
- x164 PCS assortment of heat shrink tubing, various sizes and colours.
- 4 gold plated RCA panel mount sockets.
- x2 50R BNC panel mount sockets
- x7 gold plated 4mm banana jacks
- x7 bags / types of Germanium diodes. Eyeballing it, say 100 diodes in total, something of that order. Germanium diodes are useful when you work on vintage gear like me 
- x200 (no typo) 1N4148 diodes, because you can never have too many 1N4148.

- A small kit of some sort, already assembled. Came with the instruction sheet, all in Chinese... but the schematic is there, and even I can read a Chinese schematic ! 
There is a microphone on one end, an audio jack on the other end, and 3 cascaded trannies in between. Looks like the first two trannies each provide voltage amplification, and the last one looks more like it provides current amplification to drive the audio whatever that you would connect to the jack socket thingy. Sorry audio is not my part ! 
So a mic with a preamp...Not too sure what that could be used for ?!   Stick it inside a guitar then feed that to an amplifier to make noise on stage, "concert" I think they call it ??
Might play a bit with that tomorrow, who knows...

- A couple of little antennae. They sport a BNC 50R connector it looks like, so I of course rushed to stick on of them to my scope, hoping to see something on the screen to keep me entertained... no luck : the BNC of the antenna will NOT fit on the scope ?!     Looked more closely, see picture below... could not believe it. The BNC on the antenna looks like a Male plug on the OUTside, but INside it's FEmale not male !     It's neither male nor female, it's a mix of the two, it's a " hybrid " !!  What the hell is this thing ?! I sure don't have any adapter for such a weirdo plug !     If you know where to find one...

- Kept the best for dessert : I could not believe it... in that lot was a VOLTAGE REFERENCE !!!   
A chip Chinese one of course, probably not much good but since I don't have any yet have 25 old DMM, even a Chinese one is marvelous, I have a Vref now, my start in Volt nuttery !!! 
See pics. It's a nice one : comes with the crap acrylic case AND a battery with charging circuitry on the PCB. Has a tiny USB port to charge it.. need to see if I have a USB cable with the correct plug type, and will charge it overnight and play with it tomorrow. The sticker at the back gives a real measurement of each output (2.5V, 5V, 7.5V and 10V). I see that it uses an AD584KH.

I pulled the datasheet for that. Looks like there are two variants of this chip: suffixes  'J' and 'K'.   The K is the most accurate of the two, the most stable as well, cool. 15ppm/°C.   
I see that the 4 available voltages are produced by the chip it self, not by external circuitry.
Native precision 3.5mV at best, on the 2.5mV output (gets worse and worse as you select a higher output voltage).
So not stellar. I don't know it that can be trimmed for better precision, not if they Chinese who sells those boxes bothered doing it.. .probably not.
Sticker at the back gives actual figures for each output voltage, measured with a HP 34401A DMM, so not super high accuracy I guess isn't it ? What is it on this meter ? ... but it will do.
It says  2.50129 Volts for the 2.5V output.

Will play with the thing tomorrow I am sure, if I can find a USB cable to recharge its battery ! 

Even got to keep the nice plastic box the lot came in ! Good quality and with a hinged lid, worth a few Euros in itself ! 

So.... got all that for 10 Euros, pretty much down the street, zero shipping zero driving.... I am happy camper !! 

EDIT : I just found the correct USB cable, Vref is now charging ! 

[Specmaster]

The other day I managed to get myself a free digital camera from the "trash nothing" website and today I was over at North Weald  airfield helping to restore a Ferguson TE20 tractor, in a hangar and I heard one of the Gnats from the display team take off for a training sortie. So I gave it a few minutes and then drove round to their hangar awaiting its return and here is the footage that I shot with that free camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 which has a 25 to 600mm lens and shoots full HD video as well high quality stills. This camera not only in mint condition, came with 3 batteries, memory card and charger but also a Lowepro camera case, what a bargain. It is now a very welcome addition to my 2 Canon DSLR's, 50D and 7D models.

[Cubdriver]

Next, and last.

So what did I get in my lot of components exactly ?

Spread it all over the bench and took some notes... here goes :

It's all NIB or in new condition at least.

LEDs :

x100 5mm Blue
x100 5mm Red
x100 5mm Green
x100 5mm Yellow
x100 5mm White high luminosity.
x34 3mm Red high luminosity.

- x60 tactile switches, 20 of 3 different heights (4/5/6mm)
- x4 lovely beefy ceramic power resistors, I just love ceramic resistors, so cute.
- x10 multiturn vertical trim pots.
- x10 9V battery couplers
- x1 10MHz Crystal
- x164 PCS assortment of heat shrink tubing, various sizes and colours.
- 4 gold plated RCA panel mount sockets.
- x2 50R BNC panel mount sockets
- x7 gold plated 4mm banana jacks
- x7 bags / types of Germanium diodes. Eyeballing it, say 100 diodes in total, something of that order. Germanium diodes are useful when you work on vintage gear like me 
- x200 (no typo) 1N4148 diodes, because you can never have too many 1N4148.

- A small kit of some sort, already assembled. Came with the instruction sheet, all in Chinese... but the schematic is there, and even I can read a Chinese schematic ! 
There is a microphone on one end, an audio jack on the other end, and 3 cascaded trannies in between. Looks like the first two trannies each provide voltage amplification, and the last one looks more like it provides current amplification to drive the audio whatever that you would connect to the jack socket thingy. Sorry audio is not my part ! 
So a mic with a preamp...Not too sure what that could be used for ?!   Stick it inside a guitar then feed that to an amplifier to make noise on stage, "concert" I think they call it ??
Might play a bit with that tomorrow, who knows...

- A couple of little antennae. They sport a BNC 50R connector it looks like, so I of course rushed to stick on of them to my scope, hoping to see something on the screen to keep me entertained... no luck : the BNC of the antenna will NOT fit on the scope ?!     Looked more closely, see picture below... could not believe it. The BNC on the antenna looks like a Male plug on the OUTside, but INside it's FEmale not male !     It's neither male nor female, it's a mix of the two, it's a " hybrid " !!  What the hell is this thing ?! I sure don't have any adapter for such a weirdo plug !     If you know where to find one...

- Kept the best for dessert : I could not believe it... in that lot was a VOLTAGE REFERENCE !!!   
A chip Chinese one of course, probably not much good but since I don't have any yet have 25 old DMM, even a Chinese one is marvelous, I have a Vref now, my start in Volt nuttery !!! 
See pics. It's a nice one : comes with the crap acrylic case AND a battery with charging circuitry on the PCB. Has a tiny USB port to charge it.. need to see if I have a USB cable with the correct plug type, and will charge it overnight and play with it tomorrow. The sticker at the back gives a real measurement of each output (2.5V, 5V, 7.5V and 10V). I see that it uses an AD584KH.

I pulled the datasheet for that. Looks like there are two variants of this chip: suffixes  'J' and 'K'.   The K is the most accurate of the two, the most stable as well, cool. 15ppm/°C.   
I see that the 4 available voltages are produced by the chip it self, not by external circuitry.
Native precision 3.5mV at best, on the 2.5mV output (gets worse and worse as you select a higher output voltage).
So not stellar. I don't know it that can be trimmed for better precision, not if they Chinese who sells those boxes bothered doing it.. .probably not.
Sticker at the back gives actual figures for each output voltage, measured with a HP 34401A DMM, so not super high accuracy I guess isn't it ? What is it on this meter ? ... but it will do.
It says  2.50129 Volts for the 2.5V output.

Will play with the thing tomorrow I am sure, if I can find a USB cable to recharge its battery ! 

Even got to keep the nice plastic box the lot came in ! Good quality and with a hinged lid, worth a few Euros in itself ! 

So.... got all that for 10 Euros, pretty much down the street, zero shipping zero driving.... I am happy camper !! 

EDIT : I just found the correct USB cable, Vref is now charging ! 

Looks like a nice haul, Vince.

That's a reverse sex BNC - my understanding is that they're used in antenna applications like that to keep radiated power levels in check - the oddball connector is the manufacturer's way to prevent (or at least helps to prevent) an uninformed user from plugging in a higher gain antenna that would cause the device to radiate a stronger signal than it's certified to, and keep it within regulation specs. 

https://rna.rosenberger.com/product/reverse-sma-bnc-tnc/

-Pat

[mnementh]

The other day I managed to get myself a free digital camera from the "trash nothing" website...

Damn fine glomming there, Spec! Almost as good as my curb-score fully-loaded MacPro, and arguably more useful.

mnem
 

[Zucca]

Do you buy from a seller on Ebay who does not respond to your messages/questions?

Risky risky.....

Generally, no. I might make exceptions for cheap things (like asking a generalist, almost inevitably Chinese, seller that has electronics connectors, sexy underwear, kitchen gadgets and cuddly toys as stock to clarify a measurement and they clearly can't be bothered), but not for anything with a decent ticket price like TE.

eBay auction: #125188878134

I asked if the lens containers are full.
No answer.

Muppet alert.

[mnementh]

Neji-Saurus PZ-58 Alert: Sanely-priced, free shipping to the US.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133896582872

Runner-up:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/353842334855

mnem
 *toolish*

[Brumby]

The other day I managed to get myself a free digital camera from the "trash nothing" website...

Damn fine glomming there, Spec! Almost as good as my curb-score fully-loaded MacPro, and arguably more useful.

mnem
 

I agree with the jammy git - but I'll lean towards the camera as the better score.  (I know if I had the choice of one or the other, it would be the camera that would be accompanying me home.)

[tggzzz]

- Kept the best for dessert : I could not believe it... in that lot was a VOLTAGE REFERENCE !!!   
A chip Chinese one of course, probably not much good but since I don't have any yet have 25 old DMM, even a Chinese one is marvelous, I have a Vref now, my start in Volt nuttery !!! 
See pics. It's a nice one : comes with the crap acrylic case AND a battery with charging circuitry on the PCB. Has a tiny USB port to charge it.. need to see if I have a USB cable with the correct plug type, and will charge it overnight and play with it tomorrow. The sticker at the back gives a real measurement of each output (2.5V, 5V, 7.5V and 10V). I see that it uses an AD584KH.

Welcome to the rathole, and it really is a rathole.

I'd be wary about relying on the numbers on the back; frequently all devices show the same numbers. It might be looking at fleabay to see if you can find the same numbers elsewhere

Your first task will be to take your best voltmeter, and leave it on continuously for a couple of weeks recording the output voltage. Why? Because there can be noticeable drift, and a cheap supplier is unlikely to leave them for that time before they record the output.

[AVGresponding]

Not TE, but I found it interesting nevertheless:

[Specmaster]

Just a quick addition to my post regarding the free camera I picked up, here are a couple of still shots taken with of the Gnat from the same location. The first is with a low amount of zoom (the shadow is of me and my son, so you can see that we were quite close to the plane). The second shot is of the red triangular sign beneath the cockpit at approx 4/5 zoom. While this camera does not have the same speed of operation as that of a DSLR it still is an impressive bit of kit and because it uses a digital viewfinder, it actually lags behind in presenting an image, thus not really suitable for fast moving things like jets in flight, in stills mode, it is really light and compact and is excellent for slower stuff and items on the ground.

[mnementh]

Do you buy from a seller on Ebay who does not respond to your messages/questions?

Risky risky.....

Generally, no. I might make exceptions for cheap things (like asking a generalist, almost inevitably Chinese, seller that has electronics connectors, sexy underwear, kitchen gadgets and cuddly toys as stock to clarify a measurement and they clearly can't be bothered), but not for anything with a decent ticket price like TE.

eBay auction: #125188878134

I asked if the lens containers are full. No answer. Muppet alert.

This is eBay, Z... you have to be more specific; ask if they contain the objectives as marked on the labels.

"Are they full" could honestly be fulfilled with actual dog turds... or worse.

mnem

[mnementh]

The other day I managed to get myself a free digital camera from the "trash nothing" website...

Damn fine glomming there, Spec! Almost as good as my curb-score fully-loaded MacPro, and arguably more useful.

mnem
 

I agree with the jammy git - but I'll lean towards the camera as the better score.  (I know if I had the choice of one or the other, it would be the camera that would be accompanying me home.)

Yeah, I kindof feel the same... my only valid assessment of comparative value is the $$$ of the thing as configured when new... which, according to my online research, a dual Xeon MacPro with 24GB RAM, 4 750GB Barracuda drives and 32in Cinema display, was somewhere in the vicinity of US$13,000, plus unknown $$$ in every form of graphic arts & video studio/rendering softwares under the sun.

This thing was somebody's livelihood... I think they used it for fashion photography advertisements and commercial video; it even has to Pantone & DIC color calibration studio software.

The scary part is that if I knew anything about this line of work and could get the licenses on all the software to authenticate again... I'm pretty sure that even today it would still be a more than capable workstation.

mnem