So Load Up

I really got carried away, surfing the web for info on home electronics setups last night. It's amazing how many people are out there putting together work stations and beating ancient equipment into shape.

Check this guy out. He needed an oscilloscope ("needed" is used loosely here). He wanted one of the cute little models like the ones I learned on. But they cost money. Not the thousand dollars or whatever they cost when new, but still, money. So what did he do? He did some chores for a pal, and the pal gave him a Tektronix 7904 the size of a trash compactor! This thing sold for something like thirty thousand dollars new, and he got one for nothing. Hilarious.

The Internet is full of sites like that, where guys who like to tinker have proudly thrown up photos of shops they put together for pennies.

Ebay is also full of junk to bid on. And it's astounding how prices vary. For example, some outfit listed four huge British bench power supplies that sold yesterday. The biggest was a programmable thing, and I believe it was +/-30V at up to 3A. A new supply like that would cost a fortune. Nerds being nerds, the bidders were all snipers. Right before they sold, these things were topping out at around fifty bucks. Then the bidding shot past a hundred instantaneously, except for one power supply, which sold for almost nothing!

If you look at commercial sites that sell this crap, the prices are insane. That 7904 deal the hobbyist bought for nothing is priced at over a grand at some places, and I guess they get it, probably because they sell to people who aren't shopping with their own money. Of course, the up side is that unlike Ebay items, these units may actually work.

One wonderful side effect of progress and Moore's Law and all that is that technology that is extremely powerful comes to be considered obsolete and loses its value. Try giving away a 486. In the right hands, this junk can still be very, very useful. It may be behind the curve in its particular niche, but overpowered and very cost-effective for other uses.

I suppose it's a fun time to be a nerd.