Buying tips for the hobby

[anunaki]

tx 

[Etienne MacGyver]

Thanks for the tip Andre, i am now also a member of the ESR Meter club 

[anunaki]

I order one too, so I can measure the caps on some monitors I have

[level42]

Cool guys.....I did notice it only goes up to 2200uF which isn't particularly high.

However, until now, I have found 0 bad caps under the big one's, it's the small one's that go....

[Etienne MacGyver]

Not a problem for the purpose i use it.

there is only one chassis in this list that has 2 caps that exceed the 2200 µF value

http://www.juniorsrevenge.com/MonitorCaps.html

if i ever come across one of those, i guess its not a problem to just shotgun those and replace them.

Electrohome G05-801
===================

C100 - 7200uf 50v
C101 - 7200uf 50v

[Etienne MacGyver]

Did any of you guys that orderen that ESR meter already received it ?

I have not seen anything yet... 

[anunaki]

I didn't get it yet

[level42]

Haven't seen the IR temperature meter either.......I guess it just takes very long with free shipping.

I wanted to open a dispute nevertheless because I don't want to end up loosing my money but ebay says it's too early because expected delivery date is march 6 (!) and if I haven't received it by then I should open a dispute.
I left a negative feedback anyway, just I case, I can always change it later....

[Etienne MacGyver]

Received mine yesterday.

Tried some loose old caps i had lying around, and 4 of the four say its OK
one failed, it says cap leaks, so i guess its working 

the 3 caps measured where
680uF and the meter said 713 uF,
1000uF and the meter said 1168 uF,
and the last was 100 uF and the meter said 112 uF

now i need to make some case and some connection for testleads

[anunaki]

I also got it, but had no time to check it out

[level42]

Those values are waaaaaayyy within the 20% tolerante that caps have so thats looking good

[level42]

Couldn't resist....this is on it's way to me:

Still hasn't arrived. Already gave a negative feedback (no response from seller) and I opened a dispute about it today. I want my hard-earned money back !

[level42]

....of course......guess what just got delivered.....

Case closed and feedback changed...

First impressions:
- shipped in a plastic envelope with some protective foam and bubble bag....no box but no damage at all.
- build quality is better than expected looks and feels pretty rugged
- display is good quality, good backlight
- first results look pretty reliable

It actually arrives at a great time as I rebuilt (just some parts, not much work) another Amplifone board and for some reason the Y-deflection transistors run extremely hot....this will be a good test-case

[level42]

Well.....my dear old Asterock will be leaving my home next Monday. I am a bit sad about this because I am really very fond of that machine for several reasons you guys all know by now, but I'm happy it's going to a very good home

On the up side, it will allow me to invest the money into a brand new scope.

I mentioned before I was looking into the Rigol 1052 but I have decided to buy another one.

Before I buy stuff I always investigate a lot on the net and so I found out about this one, the Owon SDS7102V

http://www.batronix.com/shop/oscilloscopes/Owon-SDS7102V.html

Now, there are some "reviews" about this one that don't favor it much, but those guys seem to be what I call "spec horny". I do not need laboratory precise measuring results, I need it for basic repair work and relatively low frequencies. Some reviews also deal with the slower versions of this scope so their main complaint about it being slow is not true for this model. It's 100Mhz out of the box so no need to do dangerous hacks like the Rigol.

So why this one instead of the Rigol ? Well first of all I really really like the much bigger screen. I'm getting older and my view is not getting better
Second.....it's possible to run this scope on a battery which is really really nice when working in/around the machines. The battery is not included and not cheap but I read about guys making their own.

I also like that there are seperate knobs for the channels. I really don't like that you have to switch between channels and use 1 knob on the Rigol, that will be annoying very quickly.

Anyone have any bad experiences with them ?

[level42]

Hey scope lovers ! Yes I know you are out there !

I just ordered a scope....but not the Rigol, not the Owon, but this one:



http://www.conrad.nl/ce/nl/product/122485/VOLTCRAFT-DSO-1062D-Digitale-Oscilloscoop?

Yep. Voltcraft. It's the same as the Hantek/Tekway (and numerous other names it is sold under.)

Why ?

Well, first of all it's quite a bit cheaper to get than the Owon SDS 7102V (which is €425 incl. shipping from Batronix). The Voltcraft is only €299 incl. shipping.
It has about the same screen size but from what I've seen and read it's quite a bit faster than the Owon.

It is also very easy to hack to a whopping 200Mhz !
For this scope you can find tons of hacks, info and programs all over the net. For the Owon I can find almost nothing, especially no hacks...
I could have gone for a cheaper Owon but that would leave me with a 0,5GSA/S scope, compared to the Voltcraft at double that rate.

I also looked into getting one from Ebay directly from China but what in case of warranty plus a big risk on import duties and taxes, not only making the price even higher but also delay delivery even further.

What do I loose ? I loose mostly battery function but I have been thinking about that. Wherever there's a running cab, there is mains power. Yes it will be a bit more cumbersome but really not impossible to use it that way. It will be bench work mostly anyway.
Also it does not have a VGA out, but apart from the "geek" factor I don't have a use for that anyway.

Lastly, I have a 30 day trial period from Conrad so that is nice, if I really don't like it I can always return it.

It's kinda strange that it is actually so cheap at Conrad because Conrad is not actually know for low prices. Want an example ?

Remember that I bought this:

?

Cost me less than €30. Conrad sells the same unit as Voltcraft: http://www.conrad.nl/ce/nl/product/100920/Voltcraft-IR-900-30S-infrarood-thermometer?queryFromSuggest=true

Did you see the price ? €109 !!!!!! The only difference is that it is grey instead of yellow !!!

Anyway, I looked around but buying a Hantek/Tekway directly from China is almost certainly more expensive and definitly taking MUCH longer...

Should have it in a couple of days.