A Surprise Telephone Call From China

[MEXICOWANDERER]

2140 hours my cellular rang...

It was Lin.

After exchanging pleasantries he arrived at the crux of the call.

A manufacturer is contemplating mass production of a hand-held meter referred to as a Scope Meter. A small hand-held oscilloscope. These things are available now but their cost is high. I asked that the proposed meter have a rechargable lithium battery and come with charging adapters for both 120vac and 12vdc

And cost a hundred dollars or less, retail.

I would love to see 100-mHz but 15 is more realistic.

In 1996 I was solicited for my opinions regarding a niche industry for China. I emphatically told them "white Leds". I told Lin at the time that production would amount to "trillions" in 15 years. They were flabbergasted at that estimate.

I shall await the fate of my scopemeter recommendation.

I also griped about the inferior quality of Chinese fasteners and electrical such as wire and terminals. Declaring wire to be a certain AWG when it is far smaller.

Seventeen minutes. The call must have cost a small fortune. From the sound of the connection and me wearing headphones it sounded like many connections were listening in.

Interesting to say the least. Expect large size lithium batteries after this coming December.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I get stuff for "analysis". A two thousand watt PSW inverter with a 60 amp PROGRAMMABLE charger is on it's way to me. Voltage adjustable and time spent at Vmax before defaulting to float. Adhesive PATCH thermistors for the batteries. A box of 15 patches but only one channel. The inverter is SWITCHABLE 12 and 24 volt. It is coming by sea so I am not brealing out in a sweat. This has to pass through US Customs in LA. It supposedly has all the bells & whistles. Including WIRELESS remote with current limiting and SOFT START for the charger. Current limiting circuit for controlling inrush. I can't do much testing here but when I get back ti Las Penas...

[NinerBikes]

I feel my minor contribution of donating a smart fone to Mexiwawa, in some way, helped forward progress for all the scope staring at techies of the world.

I would love to see smaller lighter, quick charging LI Ion batteries that are affordable, for the RV industry. Simple wish, I know. I can't afford a Tesla yet, and I don't like the range of the Nissan Leaf. Something's gotta give.

What else... smaller solar panels that are more efficient than the 15 to 18% yield we get currently. When electric cars are charged daily, fully, by use solely of solar panels, only then can you measure their carbon foot print as being reduced... not until they are charged completely off the grid can you start measuring reduced carbon foot print. Or nuclear print, if the electricity is made out of splitting atoms.

One can only wish, but it takes a good brain with foresight and a good conduit of connections in the right places to make these things happen.

Sorry I cost you 17 minutes there Mexi... think it was a good investment of time though.

Think it's only fair you send Lin a consulting fee invoice of some sort... Knowledge is power, power is money. Where's your cut?

The extent of my electronics experience goes back to 7th or 8th grade and bread boarding a Xenon strobe light, and then building it. had a pot so variable speed. Plenty of good sized capacitors in that one, got bit by the big one once while on the bread board.

My Radio Shack adventures were nothing more than buying AA NiCd batteries, heat sinking them while soldering them in doing a R&R battery replacement on a perfectly good $70 Norelco electric triple head razor that the original set wore out on. I have replaced 3 sets of batteries in that electric razor now, it's close to 25 or 30 years old now, and keeps on ticking.

Some bits of electricity I understand, other bits of electronics baffle me beyond comprehension. Not in the same league as the rest of you guys in this thread.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Teenagers are already laughing about the ridiculousness of "carburetors". I hope the new breed of scope meters appears soon.

[Golden_HVAC]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
In my haste I ommited that the new scopes will be multi color storage. For general tinkering these critters may be useful. My Techtronix is a huge worry in Michoacan's humidity 600 meters from the crashing surf. I sort of put forth a wish for a scope meter the size of three Kindles Stacktd one atop another. A three hour battery life dual channels with carrying case for probes and accessories.

LA 1991. Comp USA. Compaq desktop. 25 mHz processor. 4MB RAM. 155 MB storage. 2,242 dollars plus tax which included a b&w monitor. Jeewheeze!!!

My dad's first computer was a early Radio Shack TSR 80 with 4KB of memory, and a cassette tape deck to store the data. He later upgraded it to 16KB of memory, and removed the case of the tape deck, moved a wire (soldered in into a new location) to double the tape drive speed, so that it became much more reliable at storing and putting back the data. This was between 1977 and 1978 (when he got a new car) I remember we took the older car to go pick it up in Palm Springs, the only Radio Shack store with one in stock. The local LA county stores where only allotted a few each month, and they all sold out quickly.

He upgraded to a Morrow Designs 64KB machine in 1982, one with dual 360 KB floppy drives (noisy!) and some programs ran from the floppies, because of limited RAM in the computer. HE also bought a 1200 baud modem at the same time. You placed the phone receiver on top of this modem, to transmit the beeps and squeaks. (think War Games 1984 movie). I remember thinking why not design the modem so that it plugs directly into the phone jack. But that came a few years later.

My first Mac (1987) was a used 128 KB model with only 1 400 KB floppy. I later bought another used 1 MB Mac with a 20 MB hard drive and 800 KB floppy.

One of my high school instructors had a "Portable" computer with a 4" screen, and size 4 font, could work from the 10 AH battery or normally ran from 120 volts. It was built into a aluminum case, think large photo storage case, I recall it being about 8" tall, and perhaps 20" square. The front came off to hold the keyboard and show the display behind it. Probably about 30 pounds? I forget the manufacture.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

In my haste I ommited that the new scopes will be multi color storage. For general tinkering these critters may be useful. My Techtronix is a huge worry in Michoacan's humidity 600 meters from the crashing surf. I sort of put forth a wish for a scope meter the size of three Kindles Stacktd one atop another. A three hour battery life dual channels with carrying case for probes and accessories.

LA 1991. Comp USA. Compaq desktop. 25 mHz processor. 4MB RAM. 155 MB storage. 2,242 dollars plus tax which included a b&w monitor. Jeewheeze!!!

[wa8yxm]

George Thomas showed off a 4 channel 50 MHZ (which can be hacked to 100MHZ) in the 300 range.. Not a pocket model though but 4 channels.

Either the most recent (As of this message) Amateurlogic.tv or a recent Ham Nation.. I am thinking ALTV though.

[Donnoh]

Clay L wrote:
I used the GI bill to help pay for my engineering degree (BSEE - graduated in 1972).
In either the very late 60s or early 70s I built a Heathkit solid state (except for the CRT) oscilloscope. In the next month or so I plan to take it out of the box it was stored in for the years we were full timing and get it up and running. Suspect I will have to reform or replace some electrolytic capacitors in the process.

I've spent many an hour forming new caps in antique Reliance AC motor drives. That Heathkit O scope must have some really big caps in it.

[MrWizard]

i have a portable battery powered scope that cost $1000 20-25 yrs ago (dual trace 10mhz)
i also have the matching component circuit wave form trace comparator another $1000

havent used either in at least 5 yrs, NiCads have got to be dead, and i'm not sure, where they are stored, their in here buried somewhere

[Gdetrailer]

Since we are kicking back in "Nostalgia", perhaps you might like a real blast from the past..

AMERICAN RADIO HISTORY

They have an unbelievable amount of magazines and books from the early days of radio and TV all scanned into PDFs.. The oldest I have looked at is 1908..

Free to look at.. priceless :B

[Clay_L]

I used the GI bill to help pay for my engineering degree (BSEE - graduated in 1972).
In either the very late 60s or early 70s I built a Heathkit solid state (except for the CRT) oscilloscope. In the next month or so I plan to take it out of the box it was stored in for the years we were full timing and get it up and running. Suspect I will have to reform or replace some electrolytic capacitors in the process.

[Gdetrailer]

Golden_HVAC wrote:



Thanks for helping along the electronics industry! Back in the late 60's my dad built a Heathkit ocilloscope from a kit, that cost something like $750. When you could buy a 2 year old car for $750 back then. That thing weighted a ton! I think it was about 50 pounds, and had a 4" green scope on it.

Fred.

My Dad started selling and servicing Sylvania TVs back in the late 60's as a side job. He did that up until 1972-73 when Sylvania had a rash of bad tuners in the TVs and he ate the labor cost on the ones he sold..

Recently I brought home his old Sencor O scope with 4" CRT screen and some other items he had on his work bench.. Had to rescue the stuff before my sisters got the chance at putting all that stuff in the trash..

Dad will be 88 coming up next month and hasn't touched that stuff for 30 plus years..

[SaltiDawg]

Golden_HVAC wrote:
...
Thanks for helping along the electronics industry! Back in the late 60's my dad built a Heathkit ocilloscope from a kit, that cost something like $750. When you could buy a 2 year old car for $750 back then. That thing weighted a ton! I think it was about 50 pounds, and had a 4" green scope on it.

I built my first color TV in the late 1960's - Heathkit GR-295.

In that same time frame, Veterans were getting Uncle Sam to pay for Heathkit Electronics Correspondence Courses that included the Heathkit Oscilloscope as a project.

Also, Vets were training to become commercial pilots by taking Flight Instruction in small planes... footed by Uncle Sam.

I was eligible for both but never used any of my GI Bill entitlements.

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

I have been using 3.7 volt LI battery for many years, rated at between 3,000 ma and 5,000 ma. The size is 18650 or 18 mm diameter and 65 mm long. 26650 is also a common size, and 4,000 ma to 7500 ma capacity. I have recently seen 14500 (I think) battery that is said to be the same size as the AA batter but rechargeable 3.7 volt LI battery.

The LI battery that I have been buying is 'rated' at 5000 ma, but in reality, I don't think it meets more than about 75% of the rating that is printed on the battery. Why they don't just call it what it is, and say it is rated at 4,000 when lab tests show it is good for 'about 4,000' or anything between 4,000 and 4,200. Instead they label them at 5,000 when lab tests might only show capacity of 5,000 on a few rare batteries. Most are in the 3,900 range in the field.

It would be nice to have a reliable 5 ah to 10 ah battery in the 3.7 to 6 volt range, for use in emergency back up exit lights! I really don't care if the battery is the diameter of a 'D' battery and 4" long. It is still much smaller than a typical 6 volt or 12 volt lead acid battery in use today.

I wonder how the guy in 1996 got his mind around the concept that they would be producing over a billion LED lights in 20 years if they built white ones. And a 1,000 Billion was mind blowing at that time. Now it is just the monthly output of a few machines in a factory.

Thanks for helping along the electronics industry! Back in the late 60's my dad built a Heathkit ocilloscope from a kit, that cost something like $750. When you could buy a 2 year old car for $750 back then. That thing weighted a ton! I think it was about 50 pounds, and had a 4" green scope on it.

Fred.

[Gdetrailer]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
2140 hours my cellular rang...

It was Lin.

After exchanging pleasantries he arrived at the crux of the call.

A manufacturer is contemplating mass production of a hand-held meter referred to as a Scope Meter. A small hand-held oscilloscope. These things are available now but their cost is high. I asked that the proposed meter have a rechargable lithium battery and come with charging adapters for both 120vac and 12vdc

And cost a hundred dollars or less, retail.

I would love to see 100-mHz but 15 is more realistic.

In 1996 I was solicited for my opinions regarding a niche industry for China. I emphatically told them "white Leds". I told Lin at the time that production would amount to "trillions" in 15 years. They were flabbergasted at that estimate.

I shall await the fate of my scopemeter recommendation.

I also griped about the inferior quality of Chinese fasteners and electrical such as wire and terminals. Declaring wire to be a certain AWG when it is far smaller.

Seventeen minutes. The call must have cost a small fortune. From the sound of the connection and me wearing headphones it sounded like many connections were listening in.

Interesting to say the least. Expect large size lithium batteries after this coming December.

Pocket ones are already out there..

HERE is one for $67 but looks like maybe good up to 1 Mhz..

Also can get a USB scope which 40 Mhz bandwidth that adapts your PC to a scope for $92..

HERE