Hi all,
We’ll have the usual HIVE13 business meeting tonight at 7:30 pm. It will be short. Come early to work on projects or have informal discussions.
The meeting topics include:
Jim
FDM2000 sold for $2000. I left a voicemail with the guy who won it. He has my number and Jon’s number. If anyone else wants to volunteer as a point of contact, let me know.
I will not be able to make it tonight (unless I bring the kiddos - does the projector in the lounge work for showing movies?) but I would REALLY like for people to vote to on the following issues:
Repair or replacement of the de-soldering station (a new replacement better than what we have can be had for <$500, repair costs unknown for current equipment)
Authorize monthly discretionary supply budget ($20-$100 suggested) for the COO
Authorize $100 to be spent one time on “standard” electronics supplies i.e. basic resistors, capacitors, transistors, FETs along with bead-organizer style organization. I’m probably going to do this for the space but it would be nice to get reimbursed for it instead of taking the donation.
Authorize a budget (I don’t really care what - $100 to $1000 - I will plan around what gets approved or come back to the membership for a further authorization) to repair and upgrade HiveStor, the main public fileserver. I am thinking that its motherboard is slowly failing. The machine is totally NOT enterprise grade hardware.
I would like help setting up the machine in the Electronics Testing area that Jon donated. Help would consist of installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Desktop and wiping the machine. If anyone wants to volunteer, it would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-Dave B.
CTO
The de-soldering station is either this model, or an older variant of this model: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/TENMA-72-6340-/72-6340
We also need a new soldering iron for the hive, the previously purchased Tenma Digital soldering station (Linky) has died. I would propose we replace it with the following item: Hakko FX-888 Soldering Station plus a couple of tips ($9 each)
I have an older version of this:
http://www.howardelectronics.com/xytronic/988d.html ($295)
It’s literally 11 years old. I’ve rebuilt the vacuum pump twice (parts about $20), replaced tips, replaced one desoldering handpiece and that’s about it. I’ve literally logged THOUSANDS of hours of use on the thing. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another one. It has a nice temp control iron with replaceable tips and a desoldering iron in one unit.
I think something like this would be a good investment. Decent quality without being super expensive.
-Dave B.
Nevermind on buying a desoldering station for the hive… They had the 953D on sale so I bought myself a new lead-free station. 
I’m going to donate my old one to the hive. I picked up a couple spare soldering + desoldering tips, etc. for my unit.
Getting another soldering iron still wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I’m not springing for that.
-D
BTW: Projector in the lounge was working last time I checked, you will need to have a laptop to plug into the VGA port over by Ms. Pacman
So do we need a “media machine” if you will to play movies, etc? I was wondering about that.
-D
3D Printer update:
"Dear blundar,
I had no intensions of winning this printer after hearing it had issues, and not being able to reach you.I bid it to $2000, expecting it to sell for at least around $4000. That is what we typically get as a reseller. I tried retracting my bid, but was unsuccessful. If that printer really has problems it is basically a paper weight as parts are no longer available. Based on this info i would need to come down and power it up to verify that it does only need calibration. Are you available saturday? I notice the gauges are upgraded. Does the front of the head say “abs sr”?
"Dear corvette-427,
I honestly have no reason to believe that this unit has anything wrong with it - it’s just too large and takes up too much space for our needs. I’m sorry that you didn’t read the listing carefully. I thought that “The unit hasn’t been used in several years but worked when retired from service. It may require some calibration, alignment and other TLC to be fully functional again. We have no reason to doubt that this unit works but we have not tested it beyond making sure that it still powers on. SOLD AS-IS.” was pretty clear. I guess not…
The print head indeed does say ABS SR2.
I might have to work saturday but I can probably find someone else to be around to meet you. What time are you thinking? I’ve tried to call you several times. Please call me back so we can work something out. If you want us to do some diagnostics or whatever for you before you come pick it up / send a carrier, we’re more than willing to.
Thanks,
-Dave
5134843029
And so the dance begins…
Just got off the phone with Scott. Nice dude. I’m going to check the printer out a little more for him tomorrow or Friday. If it doesn’t work, he would like to pay $$$ to get out of the deal without negative feedback. I told him I’d need to discuss this with the group but I’m not looking to screw anyone. I’m completely fine with him paying the difference between what I can second chance offer the unit for. We still end up with our $$$, just a few more hoops of fire to jump throught. Such is the joys of ebay.
-D
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the winning bid on ebay is basically “1-unit” above what the #2 bidder bids. I’m not sure what “step value” ebay uses at this price range, but the difference between first and second bidder is likely a trivial amount. I will let other decide if that amount is too low for the amount of hassle involved. Also, did he attempt communication before the auction ended to try to remove the bid? If he didn’t, I would suspect a negotiating tactic. I would be tempted to see if the #2 bidder still wants it, especially if the difference is trivial.
Matthew