Because of upgrades, I’ve just freed up several pieces of equipment. If there’s interest, I’m willing to host:
Agilent 6643A programmable power supply - as far as I know it works perfectly. It can do 0-40V at 0-5A, and is completely programmable. Weighs quite a bit (I replaced it with a Siglent that is, well, differently capable. More in some ways, less in others.)
Also, a Keithley 5 digit bench multimeter. Only thing wrong with it is the electroluminescent display forgot how to electroluminesce. That’s not really fixable.
Oh, and also a Feelelec FY6900 AWG (arbitrary waveform generator). I replaced it with something a bit more capable and don’t really need it anymore. It’s got two channels and is a pretty nice piece of kit, IMO.
I don’t anticipate ever needing the multimeter again (I have a more capable replacement and a couple of handheld ones that are more than sufficient), same with the AWG, and the power supply I replaced the agilent with should be sufficient for my needs, and I can always borrow the Agilent back if I need it. I don’t anticipate doing that at any point in the foreseeable future.
Opening the floor for discussion - any interest? Or should I just keep them on my shelf as a backup? If there’s interest I’ll put them in the lab next time I go to the space.
I honestly really just want to contribute back, as it were, and this is the best way I know to do that right now.
Not a VFD. An LCD with an electroluminescent backlight. Completely usable without the backlight, it’s just not all glowy. I actually did try to fix it and it looks like some kind of electroluminescent coating on the back of the LCD. Maybe it’s repairable, but that’s beyond my skill level.
Man, I wish it were a DSKY.
I’ll be in the space the next couple of days, I’ll drop everything off. Any preferred place?
Hosted equipment needs a hosting agreement before it is brought to the space. If the e-lab stewards and @Jon are agreed on items being hosted, the next step is to get with @Jon to get a hosting agreement signed. It doesn’t sound like the multimeter is something we would want to have. Those are low cost enough that we would purchase our own and not host, unless there is something wildly exotic about the one discussed here that I’m missing.
It’s a high precision bench multimeter. Five digits. Those are usually pretty pricey, at least when new. But I could see that not being enough to warrant hosting, so I guess I’ll just take that off the table unless there’s further interest. I see you have one of about that precision, but it’s not as portable.
The AWG was about $150 new, so I’m guessing you’ll not want that either, because you could just buy one. So I’ll take that off the table as well.
That leaves the power supply, but you can get one of those used on eBay for about the same kind of price, so it doesn’t sound like you’ll want that, either.
So unless I end up with something a bit more exotic, I’ll not offer again. But I did try! Thanks for hearing me out.
I won’t rule it out, but that’s not something I’m prepared to do just yet.
Quite honestly, I think I might have misunderstood a bit how this works, and that’s because I helped found another makerspace in another state a few years ago that… well… did things a bit differently. I think I understand a bit better now. I’ll just keep to myself for the time being, that seems to be the best course of action.
I honestly would have deleted this topic, but I’m not allowed to.
When I’m ready to donate, I’ll do that through channels.
Yeah donation bars are certainly different than hosting bars. Hosting something at the space goes along with the space paying for repairs/replacements as required so we generally don’t like hosting items that are on the low cost end of the spectrum. @Jon is the final gatekeeper in the hosting realm as Director of Facilities, but like I said we certainly want the input and guidance of each shop area steward.
We did indeed have a benchtop power supply donated by another member recently. I’m not sure if that’s an item we were needing multiple of or if there is a difference with the one discussed here, hence the deferring to e-lab stewards.
@duskglow I’m sorry if this is coming off unwelcoming to you, that’s certainly not the intent. We appreciate your eagerness to contribute to the community. Some history you may not know as a new member is that we are coming from a history and anyone and everyone bringing whatever they felt like to the space which over years lead to an extremely junky, cluttered shop. Can’t find what you need, unmaintained documentation of items, when you finally find something it’s often broken/outdated/obsolete. We’ve disposed of at least 100 cubic yards of cruft over the last year and we’ve adopted more stringent practices in acquisition of items to ensure we don’t return to that sort of environment again. We have a budget allocated for e-lab equipment that we are trying to move forward on purchases with, so right now especially if there are fairly low dollar items we are already queued up to purchase that are being offered as hosted rather than donated, it is not in our best interest to accept them as hosted and be on the hook to someone else should anything happen to them. Hope that makes sense and certainly glad to see more e-lab folks showing interest in that area of the space.
@valerie thank you for explaining the history. It is clear this is an established community with a history of which I’m only partly aware. All I ask at the moment is that you take my attempts to contribute in the spirit that they’re intended, and we’ll go forward from there.
Hosting is something a little more involved than I had in mind, I was not intending that the space be on the hook for maintenance or repairs. I just had in mind to offer the use of tools that people might find useful. But y’all seem to have that well in hand, so I’ll just do my own thing until I’m comfortable donating - and pretty sure that time is coming. Not like I have unlimited space, myself.
I will offer this, though, if there’s an interest: I have some tools that people might be interested in exploring, and I’m continuing to make YouTube videos on them (right now just Siglent stuff, but that will probably expand as my channel hopefully matures in the future). If someone wants to schedule a time with me to do a demo or hands-on trial to see if they want to purchase one themselves, just hit me up. I hope that’s something that folks might find useful, but otherwise, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing for now.
You raise a good point - we don’t have good public documentation on what it means to host a tool. The policy is pretty consistent, but like many it has healthy dollops of tradition and oral history. I’ll add something to the wiki with a sample hosting agreement.
As a (relative) newcomer, please keep highlighting areas that seem mysterious or byzantine so we can continue to improve our documentation.
At the maker space in Indy, hosted just meant it was owned by someone and if it was abused they could come and get it. I’d seen talk of hosting being a way to make abuse less likely, so chose that route with a mill and lathe until moving down here, when I donated them.
