I traded three months of labor designing a 67 Kv, 800Kw hydroelectric project to integrate with a Southern California Edison transmission line. The project owner (foolishly IMO) jumped at the chance of "Buying An Oscilloscope" in lieu of payment. He must have figured annual proportional tax depreciation would work wildly in his favor. I presented a legal contract specifying the make and model and "new, not reconditioned or seconds". The guy definitely did not get screwed. I saved him about $50,000 in transformers, concrete rather than wood transmission poles and even 90% on the cost of the insulators.
My unit is 100% solid-state. Quad color trace with USB interface. It was made for Sandia Labs, which took delivery of it, made a formal complaint it did not meet GSA contract specifications. I drove to New Mexico and with a bank Cashier's Check, went through a few miles of jumping GSA hoops and took delivery. It's power supply can use 120-240-277-480 VAC 60 or 400 Hz. God help me if it ever breaks. it is protected in a 10 mil "Caltrans" orange trash bag along with 5 lbs of silica gel. Tied with four 11" cable ties :)
I did the same type of horse trading with a battery OEM. Three months or testing in exchange for a 6-3/4 digit bench multi-meter with 4-wire Kelvin Bridge, the 4 Kyocera solar panels, 1 100 kg digital platform scale with 1 gram resolution, a 4024 Trace inverter, and one free ticket trip to the Lockheed Skunk Works disposal auction. In turn the OEM received the "Irrefutable Proof" of performance he craved. The ratio of trading versus payment roughly translated to 320% increase in value. he he he.
