#maplin — Public Fediverse posts

A question for #electronics #mastodaoine: is there anything equivalent to the long-departed #Maplin in #Dublin?

I'm looking for a bricks and mortar hobbyist electronic components shop that's staffed by helpful people, not arrogant gate-keepery assholes. (You know the latter type; commonly found in motor factor and hardware shops.)

It is great to stumble upon an amazing resource... Often happens to me when I am looking for something else 😉

I found an old #Maplin temperature module expansion project (LM36).

After some searching I found a scan of a Maplin mag from 1987. Bingo! It had everything I needed, how it works, what it works with and circuit diagrams.

Double bingo! The site has a ton of scans of electronics mags and books from that era.

Bookmarked 👍

https://worldradiohistory.com/

#electronics
#retro
#retrocomputing

@thelad I've thought about asking a similar thing, though I'm more of a novice. I bought some stuff from #RSComponents before, but now their site explicitly says they want to deal with businesses only. I've bought from #Maplin a couple of times (really #SwitchElectronics), they seem fine. And companies like #Pimoroni, although they're more selling microcontrollers & modules, they have bundles of assorted components that are useful for getting started.

(3/3) Set up was a breeze. I quickly had the outdoor unit assembled and mounted in the garden.
It's just one unit so there are no messy cables.

The console's great and shows lots of info with the push of a few buttons.

Then it was time to re-familiarise myself with WeeWX. It's running well and reporting into CWOP, PWS, WOW, AWEKAS and Weather Underground. It's also got its own site https://wx.ja91.uk/

I'm really happy with it so far! #weather #weatherstation #maplin #geek #tywydd #weewx

(2/3) So... Get a similar station, or do I invest in something better?

I decided to upgrade to a Davis Vantage Vue station with USB data logger/interface. They seem to have a great reputation. It won't measure anything the old station didn't, but the outdoor unit is a single part, which is neater, and can charge up using it's solar panel.

It's also fully compatible with the WeeWX software that I had been using with my old station!
#weather #weatherstation #maplin #geek #tywydd #weewx

I was surprised to see they still had the signage up when I went to Wellpark earlier this week. #maplin #galway #maker #electronics