5 Jun
2010
5 Jun
'10
2:55 a.m.
On 04/06/10 18:57, Tony Duell wrote:
Argh!. I can remember when Maplin sold some reasonable-quality tools.
Like 'Elora' spanners (They did a few very small sizes that were very
difficult to find). And Weller soldering irons (I bought at least one bit
for my TCP from them). Not any more :-(.
And they don't sell tin/lead solder any more.
Now they sell mostly poor-grade consumer
electronics and a few
components. They can be useful for common connectors in a hurry. But
forget trying to get anything exotic (likea 10k resistor)...
Poor quality doesn't even sum it up...
* =A335 screwdriver kit... made of monkey-metal. The bits were wrecked in=
=20
no time, and they refused the return because it had "obviously been=20
abused". I got a CK Tools one from Farnell for =A320 that was much bette=
r=20
made, ratcheted, magnetised, and came with the common "security" bits as=20
well.
* PC power supply. Blew up and took an expensive motherboard and CPU=20
with it. Even put a PSU tester on it, which showed the +12 rail at=20
almost 20V! -- "We'll replace the power supply but you'll have to RMA=20
That's an odd fault... With many SMPSUs the 'extra' outputs will be low
if the main output is not sufficiently loaded, but having such ouptus go
(very) high is uncommon. I wonder what the fault was.
the motherboard and CPU." -- um, the guarantees
on those explicitly=20
state that they don't cover PSU faults. This was for a friend's PC, so I=20
I can understand that guarantee...
ended up footing the bill for the new MB and CPU.
Did the friend choose/buy the PSU? If so, I would have told him that it
was his fualt... If he didn't like that, tell him to find somebody else
to assemble his PC :-)
Incidentally, my common comment 'Check the PSU on dummy load' applies to
brand new PSUs too :-).
-tony