Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[bitseeker]

I just got home and luckily the package was still there.

Phew!

Amazon delivery drivers here are notorious for placing packages in the most visible spot possible. And it's about time for porch-pirate season.

[Cubdriver]

I just got home and luckily the package was still there.

Phew!

Amazon delivery drivers here are notorious for placing packages in the most visible spot possible. And it's about time for porch-pirate season.

I’ve had a FedEx Ground guy leave a package on a stump, basically in the middle of my driveway. God forbid he walk the extra twenty steps to leave it under cover on the front step. And of course it was from the Festool Recon site, so it was a big box 18 inches on a side with FESTOOL in big black letters on each side. Luckily I knew it was coming and was watching for it, but really, WTF?!?

That said, I’ve largely been fortunate with most of the delivery services - stupidity like that has been the exception rather than the rule.

It’s funny as I think about it - when I was a kid in the late 70s, seeing the UPS guy in the neighborhood was almost an event - mail off an order form pulled from the Estes or Heathkit or Digi-Key catalog (hand written, with a check filled out by mom or my aunt),then wait what seemed like an eternity for Brown Santa to finally turn down the street. (And that delivery would likely be the only one on the street that week) These days, if you DON'T see UPS, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, and now Amazon and maybe DHL every day it’s unusual. Crazy how times change…

-Pat

[Zenith]

She does not want to work.

A common problem. There are advanced psychological techniques for motivating such people.

https://www.galeswestlake.com/best-cattle-prod-reviews/

Regard it as a piece of TE.

[Zenith]

It’s funny as I think about it - when I was a kid in the late 70s, seeing the UPS guy in the neighborhood was almost an event - mail off an order form pulled from the Estes or Heathkit or Digi-Key catalog (hand written, with a check filled out by mom or my aunt),then wait what seemed like an eternity for Brown Santa to finally turn down the street. (And that delivery would likely be the only one on the street that week) These days, if you DON'T see UPS, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, and now Amazon and maybe DHL every day it’s unusual. Crazy how times change…

Yes. Delivery vans from UPS etc have been an increasingly common sight here for years, but ordering on line really took off with Covid, for obvious reasons. I'm sure a lot of people were forced to try it and liked it. Apart from delivery to homes, there are also services which collect and delivery from local shops, which seem to be doing a roaring trade and have grown up over the past few years.

I live a few miles outside a city of half a million people. I'd find it hard to impossible to find a place to buy a lot of the things I'm interested in - computer items, electronic components. It was less so ten years ago.

[bd139]

Conversely there are plenty of places to buy what I need around me but I don't use them because they are expensive, unreliable and require paying for public transport, fuel or parking.

That's the reality these days. More UPS please

[Zenith]

There and again, electronic components have always had a large mail order aspect. At one time there were electronics/surplus shops, but they seem to have almost all disappeared. Tottenham Court Road was a Mecca. I used to enjoy going to Centre Electronics in Birmingham, which was one of the last. It closed about 20 years back. When hobby electronics was at its peak in the 70s and 80s, there were a few shops specialising in components, meters etc, but often they did mail order. About the only one I can think of that's left is ESR Components. Even then, I 'd guess most people used the advertisers in the hobby electronics mags. Maplin was something of a phenomenon, with a decent range, but that dwindled to the point where components were a side line and they concentrated on toys and disco gear.

Times change. At one time there were computer shops all over the place. Most of those seem to have died out. As you say, if you want anything like that, it's generally cheaper and you have better choice by shopping online. You have a couple of days wait against the hassle of going there. I suppose the ones that are left offer advice and repair/upgrade services for those who are not very much into it.

[MED6753]

I just got home and luckily the package was still there.

Phew!

Amazon delivery drivers here are notorious for placing packages in the most visible spot possible. And it's about time for porch-pirate season.

Something similar happen to me yesterday and I'm still wondering if it was a simple mistake or intentional. Amazon, and others such as UPS, are generally real good about placing packages inside in our enclosed front porch which puts them out of view of the street. But yesterday Amazon put a package in front of the laundry room door (have photo) which is also an alternate entrance to the downstairs apartment. When I went to get the package it was gone. I figured maybe one of the kids who lives downstairs took it inside when they got home from school. So I knock on the door. Their Father answers door. I ask if they have my package. He returns 30 seconds later with my package. I say "thank you" but at the same time say to myself "don't you read the name on the package?". Clearly has my name on it. So I wonder. Were they gonna keep it? It wouldn't have fit his wife anyway. She's too freaking huge. (Yes, Xmas present for the lady)

[Specmaster]

Conversely there are plenty of places to buy what I need around me but I don't use them because they are expensive, unreliable and require paying for public transport, fuel or parking.

That's the reality these days. More UPS please

You are just so bloody lucky to be able to say that, around here there are no shops selling the items I'm interested in, there used to be plenty, but they all died away decades ago and left only Maplin and they have pulled the shutters down as well. Yes the shops where you are do require fuel, parking or transport fares of some sort or other, but mail order often carries a postal cost so that off sets the fuel costs etc to a degree, but more imortantly, often if I had the same shopping ability, I'd gladly pay the costs in order to get the item(s) that I required the same day so I could finish whatever I was working on.

OK, sometimes Amazon can deliver the same day if you're lucky, but that can mean at times waiting up to 10pm for the delivery

[Zucca]

God forbid he walk the extra twenty steps to leave it under cover on the front step.

In my home in USA, Amazon has to drop it in front of my door, if not the stupid GPS in the small amazon delivery device will not turn the delivery to done.

[MED6753]

Conversely there are plenty of places to buy what I need around me but I don't use them because they are expensive, unreliable and require paying for public transport, fuel or parking.

That's the reality these days. More UPS please

You are just so bloody lucky to be able to say that, around here there are no shops selling the items I'm interested in, there used to be plenty, but they all died away decades ago and left only Maplin and they have pulled the shutters down as well. Yes the shops where you are do require fuel, parking or transport fares of some sort or other, but mail order often carries a postal cost so that off sets the fuel costs etc to a degree, but more imortantly, often if I had the same shopping ability, I'd gladly pay the costs in order to get the item(s) that I required the same day so I could finish whatever I was working on.

OK, sometimes Amazon can deliver the same day if you're lucky, but that can mean at times waiting up to 10pm for the delivery

After Radio Shack went tits up there's absolutely nothing local with respect to parts, etc.

[Zenith]

Radio Shack wasn't great, at least not in the UK. It might have been better in the US. Fry's Electronics was supposed to be good, but the one time I went there I wasn't impressed. I'm sure there were others, including individual shops, that were better.

At one time we had Maplin, which was a chain of stores across the UK. An American I worked with in the mid 90s was very impressed, and they carried quite a range. On Saturday mornings there'd often be a queue round the shop. When the boom in hobby electronics faded around the late 90s, it got to the stage where they only sold components as a hangover from their origins. You'd want half a dozen capacitors say, and they'd only have two in stock. They'd shifted the business to other things such as toys, computer parts and "mixing" gear. I gather it went down eventually, because of the amount of takeovers and financial jiggery-pokery they had to suffer, not because they'd shifted to selling other things with not enough success.

[Cubdriver]

Yeah, Rat Shack in my experience had become pretty useless components-wise in the last decade or two of their existence here. What had been swinging hinged walls of parts at the back of the store became a 4 foot tall, two foot square cabinet of compartmented drawers. They could offer you a cell phone and plan, though!

I remember once (2010-ish?) going in looking for some coax, remembering the big A-frame rack they used to have back in the day that had reels of everything on it. Looked around and saw nothing, not even a 25’ coil on a card hanging on a rack. Asked the kid working there if they had any coaxial cable, and he looked at me like I had three heads. Explained to him what it was, and all he could show me were $20+ pre made cable tv cables - wrong impedance and way too much $$, so I passed on them. Grabbed something small while I was there - think I needed a pair of power resistors to temporarily load an amp for adjustment, and predictably, as I checked out and paid, he asked if I was interested in a cell phone plan. Do the idiots in charge realize how annoying it is when they require their employees to push cell phones/store credit cards/extended warranties/anything else like that on EVERYONE that buys anything? I came in for a AA battery - what makes you think I want a cell phone? Annoying your customers - ALWAYS a winning strategy!!

-Pat

[MED6753]

Radio Shack wasn't great, at least not in the UK. It might have been better in the US. Fry's Electronics was supposed to be good, but the one time I went there I wasn't impressed. I'm sure there were others, including individual shops, that were better.

Agreed, Radio Shack wasn't great but it was (barely) better than nothing. Fry's was mainly Western US and there weren't any close by.

[Cerebus]

And it's about time for porch-pirate season.

Is that like grouse season or deer season?

[MED6753]

And it's about time for porch-pirate season.

Is that like grouse season or deer season?

Too bad it isn't a crime to shoot them.

[25 CPS]

Parts stores and surplus stores.

Locally, in the greater Toronto area, there's still Sayal Electronics with branches in several different locations and a couple of other retail stores plus Electrosonic which is closer to a catalogue/online ordering outfit like Newark or Digikey than a customer facing retail store. Nutech is also an electronics components retailer with two shops, one in Hamilton and the other in St. Catharines so that's more Niagara Peninsula than Toronto area.

As far as surplus stores go, A1 parts still exists but I haven't been there in ages. Electronic Surplus Industries is still in business but their electronic test equipment inventory seems to be gradually drawing down which seems to reflect the decline in equipment coming on the market in general these days. Toronto Surplus and Scientific is north of the city, just east of Newmarket and their pricing reflects mainly being a business-to-business seller.

Interestingly, sometime in the past few months, Ecotech Electronics, has renamed themselves Hitech Electronic Recyclers even though it seems to be the same business with the same people in the same location, and the same person's account being used to post the Kijiji ads. That looks a lot like there was a strategic reincorporate with a new name for some reason there.

So, in the Greater Toronto Area, we're still spoiled for bricks and mortar component stores and surplus outfits, even if the supply of affordable surplus itself seems to be experiencing a bit of a drought right now. That comes and goes in cycles as businesses in the area plus government entities replace their equipment on a lifecycle basis.

[mnementh]

Yeah, around here, this evidently is pretty much it for local:

https://www.cablesandconnectors.com/



mnem

[Robert]

When I was in Toronto a few years ago I was disappointed to find that while the telescope model was still on the building, EfstonScience had gone (2012 apparently).
I spent a months vacation in Toronto over the 1989/1990 holiday season and was spoilt for choice with surplus and computer stores within walking distance. I did come home with a 486 CPU & motherboard and a Infra-read tracking head from a CF101 Voodoo in my suitcase. That would not happen today.

[Zenith]

Some of the parts I want come from rallies - it's always worth keeping an eye out for them and sometimes there are component dealers there. A few come from ebay, but I don't like buying components on ebay, because it tends to be expensive and there are a lot of fakes about. Some hard to find things have to come from Little Diode or Langrex, or somewhere else that specialises in obsolete items. Mostly I buy from somewhere like Farnell and wait until I have a sizeable order to avoid the handling charge.

I suppose it's pretty much the same for everybody.

[Cubdriver]

Since the Coof and the original guy retiring just before, it seems that Apex out in Sun Valley CA is no longer open on Saturdays, so that pretty much kills any chance of me getting there while out on a visit. This may not ENTIRELY be a bad thing, as I have a repair queue several miles long already and shipping boat anchors home from the left coast has become rather pricey, but it still sucks to lose the option. I can still occasionally time it right to hit the TRW swap meet at least, but that's hit or miss, too. A lot of resellers there these days.

-Pat

[mansaxel]

ELFA which is now a name in front of Distrelec used to have a competent store with lots and then some of components and stuff. It closed a few years back. Now, we don't have anything except a pretty pale Radio Shack copy known as Kjell & Co. You can buy components there, but only in form of "surprise bags", where you get a mix of transistors, for instance.

I just ordered a buncha stuff from Teuber & Blomdahl which is definitely a boutique in terms of electronics tools. When (and IF -- I think I'll have to find a way to pay them first) they ship, I'll have an unboxing event.

Skipped a -hp- 400E today. I have the 427A and the 400H, so not starved for AC wiggly volts. Also, a 410b, a Marconi VTVM, and a H&B/Grundig/Sennheiser RV55.

[25 CPS]

It looks like today's delivery driver has more of a brain than the one yesterday did. This parcel is hhiding behind the recycling bin on the porch behind the cedar tree. I'll feel better once I'm home from work and have it safely inside the house but I'm much happier it isn't sitting out in the open like the box with the HP 35 in it was yesterday.

Oh yes, those Christmas lights waiting to get put back up? They are what you think they are. Good old fashioned energy wasting hot tungsten filament incandescent bulbs. They look amazing.

[Specmaster]

We have had steampunk AVO's before but today I noticed a new trend that was posted over on EEVblog, but this I think falls a bit wide of the mark IMO at least, any thoughts?

https://www.amazon.de/Handwerk-Porthole ... uage=en_GB

61CznhD72vL._AC_SL1024_.jpg

[Zenith]

Extraordinarily silly. Very expensive for a 32GB USB thumb drive, and in view of the way they are treated, slightly dangerous.

[Specmaster]

Certainly would not like to pocket one of those, that could be a big mistake I think.