Re: Strategies for Buying Test Equipment off Ebay

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:16:34 GMT, nico@xxxxxxxxxxx (Nico Coesel)
wrote:

John Larkin <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:30:07 -0800, D from BC
<myrealaddress@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 28 Oct 2007 12:12:16 +0000, John Devereux
<jdREMOVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Marra <cresswellavenue@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

I would never buy second hand equipment after being screwed a couple
of times.

People just seem to want to sell worn out junk at nearly new prices !
This not only goes for ebay but other online sellers.

I never buy second hand off ebay anyway.

I disagree, I have bought quite a lot of test equipment off ebay and
not regretted any of it.

You can buy kit that was gold-plated top of the range 10 or 20 years
ago for, relatively, peanuts.

This is a golden age for electronic engineering on a budget in my
opinion. Affordable test equipment, easy internet access to millions
of parts and their datasheets, application notes and *free samples*!
Microcontrollers keep on getting faster and more integrated,
exponentially. Their development systems are so cheap they are given
away with a 99$ evaluation board. Compilers are free, as are operating
systems and protocol stacks. Etc.

Damn right!
I don't know why I went to school.

School is, or should be, for the basics: physics, thermo, math,
circuit theory, signals+systems, control theory, communications
theory, materials science... stuff you probably wouldn't teach
yourself. People who don't have this stuff pounded into them are at a
disadvantage.

That is very true. I've been a electronics tinkerer since I was like
12 or 13 years old but I would never taught myself -for instance- the
staggering amount of math I learned in school. A more theoretical
approach (analysis) often leads to better circuits in less time.

The tinkering is of course a great preamble to the theory. In my
classes, sometimes a concept would explode off the blackboard at me:
I'd *done* that, and now really understood how it worked. The other
guys just kept taking notes.

John

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