nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category acquired things

DMMs

March 18, 2006

On the left is my brand new Fluke 179 which just showed up today (thanks, Chad!). In the middle is the Radio Shack DMM I had received from my parents a number of years ago as a gift. My first DMM, if you could say that… On the right is a crappy ‘Cen-Tech’ brand DMM which I purchased from Harbor Freight solely to compare a batch of transistors.

While I didn’t expect the Harbor Freight meter to be even remotely accurate (after all, it cost $3 or $4), when hooking all three DMMs to the same power supply, it is surprisingly close to the Fluke. Wow.

This isn’t to say the Fluke wasn’t worth it, as it is amazingly responsive, easy to use, and does all sorts of things well… And being properly calibrated and all, I can trust its results. I’m just amazed that the general piece-of-crap from HF was more accurate than the one I’ve been using for years. I guess I should have replaced it sooner.

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eBay!!!

February 22, 2006

Wow, I know I’ve been spending a bit lately and otherwise rather busy, but I just received an email-based eBay alert for a particular camera lens I’ve been looking for. The Canon Life-Size Converter EF is an add-on for my current macro lens, the EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro, which allows it to focus at 1:1. Normally this lens is $249 or so, with it showing up at online retailers for around $225 grey market.

For some reason the eBay auction for it was listed at $150 Buy It Now, even though the lens regularly gets bid up to over $180. And this one has the soft case, too.

So, basically, I ended up with the grey market lens and case for $165, shipped. Worst case, I should be able to re-sell it for at least what I paid…

I have to admit, the auction sounds pretty oddly listed, but we’ll see what comes up, I guess.

Oh, while I was typing this I received a few notes through eBay from the seller… < shrug > Sounds good thus far…

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Oscilloscope

February 21, 2006

Yay! I just woke up in the middle of the night in order to bid on (and win) this oscilloscope. It’s a 20Mhz model made by LG, which appears that it’ll do what I need as far as audio stuff goes. Oh, and it also comes with the probes and whatnot.

I had originally been looking at this 60Mhz Tektronix 2213, but at the last few minutes the bidding jumped over US$100.

Now I’m going to go back to bed.

Later today I’ll attempt to get a adjustable DC power supply and some test clips… Then (provided my DMM works well) I’ll have all the electronics tools which I’ve been wanting en route.

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Canon EP-EX15

February 10, 2006

For any of you who may have a Canon EOS body (Digital Rebel, XT, 20D, 5D, whatever) and wear glasses, I suggest that you check out the Canon EP-EX15 Eyepiece Extender. I picked one up today for $14.99 from Camera Mart in Pontiac, and after putting it on my camera, all I can say is “wow”.

While the camera is great to use without glasses, one has to press the glasses a bit closer to their eye in order to see the whole viewfinder. With the EP-EX15 installed, the image size is reduced by 30% and moved out from the body by 15mm. This has the effect of both allowing one to keep the viewfinder a little further from the eye (glasses-length away) and it keeps one’s nose from pressing against the screen of the camera.

I will have to see how it works out in the long run, but for now it seems like it was definitely worth adding on to the camera. Especially for only $15.

I still would like to get the Canon Angle Finder C because I’d rather gotten in the habit of taking waist-level photos using the flip-out screen on my Coolpix 5400, but at $179.95 it’ll have to wait a while.

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