jrz126

As I was thermocoupling a diode panel in an Electronics lab, I got to talking with the tech person about old electronics equipment (I'm looking for a used oscilloscope). She said that there is a "junk room" downstairs. After we figure out that the powersupply doesnt have enough voltage for the diodes (plenty of current though, it's actually rated in kiloamps, I only needed 1/2 kiloamp for my diode tests). I ask if she can show me this "Junk room"

She does, and its just shelves chock full of goodies. most of the stuff is probably broken, but there is still some good stuff....
Here's what I found:

A stack of double-sided copper clad boards 8"x11"x(1/8)" (probably 50-100 of them :shock: )
A huge assortment of oil filled caps
Many different brands of In Circuit Emulators. (what exactly are these used for?) mostly for intel brand processors (8051,8086)
A bunch of other test equipment, resisors in reels, HUGE diodes (2" in diameter)....thats about all I remember.

The reason why I say it is heaven is because I can purchase this stuff (hopefully, if it isnt needed any more) for $0.10 a lb!
I think I may go into buisness on ebay.

__________________
Jeff Zimmerman
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

panic mode

oh... and i tought she was pretty :lol:

Nigel Goodwin

There's a girl in my daughters year (year 9) at school, her christian name is 'Heaven' - she's actually a very pretty girl!.

Even funnier than just been called 'Heaven', her middle name is 'Lee' :lol:

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

samcheetah

whats her last name? girl? human? creature? homo sapien?

think of all the combinations

Heaven Lee girl
Heaven Lee human
Heaven Lee creature
Heaven Lee homo sapien

Nigel Goodwin

I can't remember her surname, it's something fairly normal :lol:

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

jrz126

Hey guys, thanks for ruining my post about my great electronics discovery with this pointless talk about girls. :? :lol:

I just remembered that there is a couple PROM programmers there as well. Big machine with a 40 pin ZIF socket, one of them has 2. I'm probably going to get them for the ZIF's, but would they be useful for anything else?

__________________
Jeff Zimmerman
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

samcheetah

you are welcome :lol:

i dont think that a PROM programmer might be of much use. surely the ZIF sockets are the things useful in there. take out the ZIF sockets and use them where you need them and also keep the PROM programmer board. who knows you might need them someday.

Optikon

You ought to spend some quality time down in that room and write down a more complete list of the items. There could be some real gems in there that you dont wanna pass up.

Personally, I would avoid simple things like cheap components etc.. these are things that you can get anywhere, anytime for next to nothing.

Pay closer attention to equipment, anything that looks like it can handle lots of power and unique tools etc...

If the EEPROM programmer is "somewhat" recent (few years old) it could be usseful to you or someone else that does HW programming.

jrz126

Well next week is shut-down, so all the union labor is off for the whole week. Which means I won't have any "work" to do. So I will make a better list.
They had some old o-scopes. they had seperate storage modules for it.
I dont know if they are down there because they are busted or what. Chances are they are broken.

We will see...

What about all of the In circuit emulators that they have? would those be useful?

__________________
Jeff Zimmerman
To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

TheOne

If you can get hold of some old Tek scopes (and some extra for parts), together with a service manual These manuals were written in the days of discrete "classical" analog design, and go into detail describing the circuit operation. This is some of the best "books" on teaching circuit design/operation you will find anywhere. I always believed (told my students as well) that good fault-finders make great Engineers at the end. I have seen too many instances where "Paper-Engineers" were unable to faultfind their own circuits (of only medium complexity), once it stopped working correctly!

__________________
\"You can\'t make a circuit fool-proof, cause fools are so ingenious!\"

andy257

I have the same thing where i work. We have an old calibration lab that doesnt get used anymore because they would rather use external calibration which costs more than the two cal lab technicians who they made redundant. Directors eh, they know nothing!

anyway, the lab doesnt get used anymore and houses lots and lots of goodies. Lots of high power equipment and broken or failed calibrated equipment. Being a cal lab it has every instrument known in electronics just about.

shame i cant find a way to take this stuff home

andy

Nigel Goodwin

How about a big sandwich box? :lol:

__________________
PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

TheOne

One company I remember were I once did some consulting work, insisted in destroying all old instruments once they were taken out of service faulty or not :cry: :cry: I saw HP/Tek .. scopes, spectrum analyzers etc. being crushed :cry: :cry: :cry: (maybe because they were into military designs)?? I desperately tried to buy some stuff, but no go!

__________________
\"You can\'t make a circuit fool-proof, cause fools are so ingenious!\"

pike

Yep pay closer attention to things of scarceness. I got sucked into the school storeroom cleanout, and walked home with 40kg of resistors diodes and ferrite beads. The stuff I was after was the rare semiconductors.

I ended up throwing it out.

p.s. you take the lot and sell it on ebay!!!

__________________
www.winpicprog.co.uk - Great PIC language tutorials.

samcheetah

i wish i could get one of those manuals. is there any website that sells these manuals. and it would be great if they also deliver it to my country