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Post by papaof2 on Jul 28, 2023 11:42:02 GMT -6
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Post by feralferret on Jul 28, 2023 16:21:10 GMT -6
Yep! Those prices would be about right for 1962. I miss having someplace like the original Radio Shack stores that were actually a good source of tools and supplies for electronic hobbiests and professionals.
I used to buy replacement chips at Radio Shack for the on air audio console at one of the radio stations where I was the contract engineer. The on/off button for each channel was a hall effect switch that toggled this particular chip which was VERY static sensitive. I cut the failure rate from common to almost nothing when I used a trick that a TV station where I had previously worked used. Put a cap full of liquid fabric softener in a quart spray bottle full of water. Finely mist the solution on the carpet of the control room. Repeat weekly.
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 28, 2023 17:24:05 GMT -6
I really like the price on a pound of solder ;-)
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Post by feralferret on Jul 28, 2023 18:26:20 GMT -6
I bought a one pound roll of solder about 30 years ago. I still have about 3/4 of it. I don't use it nearly as fast since I no longer do the radio engineering work.
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Post by papaof2 on Jul 28, 2023 19:35:07 GMT -6
Don't remember how long it's been since the last time I bought a pound of Kester 44 Eutectic 63/37 Solder (the blend with the lowest melting point) but I have half or more of the roll left. Doesn't take nearly as much solder per pin of an IC versus per pin of a tube socket ;-)
Maybe tomorrow or Sunday, I'll be putting together the data logger I've been collecting parts for. One 18 pin IC socket and two 8 pin sockets, a half dozen resistors and capacitors and some connectors and terminal strips and it'll be done - probably won't use a foot of solder in doing all of that.
The finished logger should be able to record 4 readings of whatever parameters I'm watching at intervals from about 1 or 2 seconds (depending on what's being read) to a time measured in days, hours and minutes for anywhere from 512 to 4096 (or more) readings. 512 readings 1 second apart cover about 8 1/2 minutes. 4096 readings one second apart cover a little over 68 minutes. 512 readings 20 minutes apart cover 7 days plus a couple of hours. 4096 readings 20 minutes apart cover almost 57 days. One chip is a real time clock so it can provide good accuracy over a long time period. The standard code doesn't include the time of each reading but I found two ways to save the date/time. One is a modified version of the code that can also save the date & time with each data reading - just need to put my tweaks in the second version and I'll be good to test as long as the batteries last ;-) The other version saves the start and end times and you can interpolate the actual time of each measurement from the start time plus the interval between records.
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