Confess your impulse purchases!

I'm sure everyone is all too familiar with spotting some cool stuff and not being able to resist. I know I'm definitely guilty.

Fess up to the stuff you really shouldn't have bought but did! Let's be honest, the most likely outcome is that some of us will likely join you - but then you'll probably feel less guilty about it.

wolfgangfriedrich over 1 year ago in reply to Jan Cumps

Thanks for reminding me. Now I remember having read about this before. And it makes perfect sense.

The 'analog' bar on some DMMs is totally useless for this purpose.
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Jan Cumps over 1 year ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

wolfgangfriedrich said:
No idea what to use it for yet …

I use it in designs where I want to see change. A DMM is the best option to measure something. Fast, accurate, easy to read a measurement.
But when want to see what's changing in a circuit, I still use this one where possible. The fixed range and moving needle sometimes make it easier to "get" change , than a changing number (or that jumpy auto-ranging progress bar) on a DMM.
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beacon_dave over 1 year ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

wolfgangfriedrich said:
It even came with a schematic!

That one was available in kit form that you could assemble yourself.
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wolfgangfriedrich over 1 year ago in reply to Jan Cumps

It even came with a schematic! Unthinkable these days.
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Jan Cumps over 1 year ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

One team <3
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wolfgangfriedrich over 1 year ago

Last week at our annual local HAM yard sale, I couldn't say 'no' to this one. Was only CAD 10.- ! No idea what to use it for yet …
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kmikemoo over 1 year ago in reply to dougw

I can second dougw's experience with the Micronta. I have a C cell in mine from the 80's.
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anniel747 over 1 year ago in reply to dougw

Not the batteries we have now.
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dougw over 1 year ago in reply to electronicbiker

Actually batteries generally were included. I just checked a couple of them that were not still in the packaging, but with original batteries. They all are still good and working. The oldest is a Micronta bought around 1974 that I used quite a bit and the original batteries are still going strong. They are Radio Shack Enercell Extra Life batteries.
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shabaz over 1 year ago in reply to cstanton

I'm interested to see a radiation detector based on scintillation, but not seen a low-cost option so far : (

It's possible to get photomultiplier tubes cheaply from ebay occasionally (even though modern detectors use silicon I believe), but that's just one part of it.

I bought the Chipwhisperer in kit form, which was a mistake, because I've put off assembling it for years : ( It's quite a lot of effort to build it, and the requirement went away (it turned out, that simply hiring a test firm is more worthwhile for orgs, since they have accreditations for testing etc). (Incidentally, those testing firms do use the Chipwhisperer for some of their tests.. probably the non-lite version).
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