What a deal ?

 I got this notification from ebay, $1050 off !:

the countdown has begun

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143598360784

so the total would be 2057.25 including tax for 100 of the Phaostron meters.

I usually "watch" ebay "buy it now" stuff that I'm sorta interested in before buying just for this type of discount, some sellers even have patterns of doing this, so it may save a few dollars.

But even though these are really nice meters (not sure if they are taut-band or jeweled or what but they are 50 uA full scale, or 20,000 ohms per volt when used in a VOM) over $20 for a surplus meter that's entering middle age (33) is kind of a lot of money.

I do have a similar Phaostron meter which I *think* I bought from (the now departed) BG Micro last century:

date code 52nd week of 1981 ?

the works are visible

But I never used it for anything.  That's the other thing, what would I do with 100 meters, sell them in a kit, a VOM ?  Now one interesting thing is that it would be easy to create is a circuit board "front panel" with a cutout for the meter - the circuit board could be either aluminum or fiber glass.  It could be used with a case like the Davies Molding 260 with the result being similar to a Simpson 260 :)

source: https://assets.alliedelec.com/f_auto,q_auto,c_scale,w_400/70097773.jpg

https://www.alliedelec.com/product/davies-molding/0260-k/70097773/

 

One problem I encountered with the Phaostron was that the "glass" is really plastic, if there's enough static charge on the face the meter needle will be affected.   There were a couple of hints and kinks from QST on combating this:

Both recommend using liquid dish soap (a tiny bit) on the plastic meter cover ("glass") and leaving a very thin film of soap on the face.  This film is hygroscopic and the moisture helps to dissipate the static charge.  This is the principle behind "pink poly" type anti-static bags and IC tubes.

Anyway, the static problem is enough to warn me off the "bargain" on the meters, who wants to be explaining to 100 customers that the meter is fine, it's static causing that weird needle behavior ?

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm