French pishanto

[Firebottle]

I'm sure the proper word begins with an 'm'......
anyway myself and the good lady wife went to a local brocante (boot sale) and came back with a few goodies.

Vinyl haul, from three different stands, total cost €5:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030141.jpg

Also picked up a DC/DC convertor, as in a linear one rated at 10A, will make a good 13.8V linear PSU with the right transformer, for €2:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030142.jpg

I thought the I/C in the pic (€1) would be good for when I'm testing stuff, to lengthen the phono connections, turns out it's 5m long :doh:

We've got a few more brocantes pencilled in on the calendar for the forthcoming weeks,

:cool:Alan

[Gordon Steadman]

You obviously have better vide greniers up there than we do down here:(

I have never yet seen anything worth paying out actual money for at any I have visited. Have you seen what the French try and sell on eBay:lol: My recent haul of Fidelity er....hi-fi would be up for hundreds of euros:mental:

[wiicrackpot]

My sister and i took a trip to a local Brocante long time ago thinking i might strick gold hifi wise,
lets just say it's nothing like the car boot sales we're used to here,
one i really like and always insist in going at every opportunity is the open air market at Plainpalais in the centre of Geneva,
held every Wednesday and Saturday, stalls are very varied and great to browse, a right Eurotrash of 'stuff',
recommended if you're ever in that part of the woods. :)

[Audio Al]

:) Good too see you out hunting for gems

some nice items

[Marco]

Al, just watch that these pseudo-froggies don't steal ya crown! :eyebrows:

Marco.

[Gordon Steadman]

Al, just watch that these pseudo-froggies don't steal ya crown! :eyebrows:

Marco.

I suspect he might have a small lead........(I can imagine that leading to some unnecessary comments..... please don't:eyebrows:)

[Firebottle]

OK brocante finds again.

Firstly bought a couple of vinyls, the Strauss is a 4 disc set :) 2€ each.

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030184.jpg

Saw a reel to reel lurking at the back of a stand, but wasn't tempted:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030172.jpg

Then came across what appeared to be a preamp at the front of a box of 'stuff'. The photos of the stuff first:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030173.jpg

This seems to be a switched auto transformer for setting the mains output to 220V. The red line on the meter corresponds to 220V, there is what appears to be an additional board that can give two remotely switched outputs. The transformer is rated at 500VA I guess. Here are the innards:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030174.jpg

A couple of other smaller cases, the first some sort of filter unit, maybe for a microphone input to a PA:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030175.jpg
http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030176.jpg

The internal shot shows sockets for miniature plug in relays, two of which have been replaced by larger ones in the centre of the case.
There are some beautiful neon bulbs on the previous two units :D

The second smaller case seems to be some sort of switching unit, it has germanium transistors on what looks like a home brew pcb:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030177.jpg
http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030178.jpg

Also in the box of stuff, apart from a few assorted leads, was a battery charger and a small mono mixer box:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030179.jpg

The latest in designer headphones came next, plus a couple of microphones:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030180.jpg

And lastly the 'industrial' looking preamp, it must have been a forerunner to the croft series as it has individual controls on each channel, treble, bass and volume:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030181.jpg

Here are the internals, I have disconnected one channel pcb to trace out the circuit, it's very mediocre :(
The strange thing is the RIAA feedback components are missing from one channel and are not right in the other :mental:

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030182.jpg


Finally the regulator I bought at the last brocante has been fixed to the back of a duff battery charger. With the addition of a second mains transformer to give the necessary voltage it now makes a very respectable 13.2V 6.5A linear power supply. Oh what fun to be had.

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt97/Paramotorpilot/Pishanto/P1030183.jpg

OK that's it for now, but there's another brocante tomorrow :eyebrows:

:cool:Alan

[Gordon Steadman]

Those records look immaculate, I hope the insides are as good as the covers. I envy your ability to see what the hell is going on inside a box just by looking at the components. I just see wires an stuff!

[Oldpinkman]

Allez les rosbeefs!

[Firebottle]

Yes Gordon the records are in very good order :)

Love the Quake as a speaker stand (private view - sorry all)

:cool:Alan

[Gordon Steadman]

Yes Gordon the records are in very good order :)

Love the Quake as a speaker stand (private view - sorry all)

:cool:Alan
But what about the cardboard box as the other one??:lol: I guess I had better show you all what we are going on about. A little test session at Chez Nodrog!!

[Gordon Steadman]

Here you go Alan,

Actually knocked up a quick couple of oak stands as I was doing some woodwork yesterday afternoon!! Quality:rolleyes:

[stupinder]

Bought some great stuff at Brocantes and Vide Greniers over the past few years...also bought some utter tripe! Some of the bigger brocantes can be expensive but the last one I went to I bought a load of mint Crass (not everyone's cuppa I know) albums with their posters and everything plus some Ozric tentacle CDs.
I use Emmaus (run by ex prisoners I think) quite a bit for buying tunes (and books too)..In fact I've just donated a couple of hundred albums I didn't use to them.