"WH Smith name to disappear from High Street after sale"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj3n3en7gppo

Where am I supposed to bug my dad to take me now to buy the new edition of the Maplin catalogue?

#WHSmith #Maplin

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

So I just tried to login to my online #Maplin account to change my email address. The pop-up window politely informed me that the email address used for login can't be changed!

Excellent! So if I change my email address I have to set up a new account! Nice one #Maplin... have you even thought this through?

(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

(1/3) So for years I had a weather station that I bought from Maplin with my staff discount. Yeah, it was a while ago.

After slowly replacing almost every part of it, about 3 years ago the receiver/display failed, making the whole thing useless.

A replacement would cost the same as the whole kit and I just kind of gave up on it.

Recently I decided I was going to sort it out. At this point, the anemometer had ceased up too... #weather #weatherstation #maplin #geek #tywydd #weewx

Ah, the joys of mending old tech.
A friend’s #WeatherStation #sensor unit stopped working and I said I’d have a look.
Brittle plastics from #UV exposure and riddled with #CreepingGreenDeath 😖
This was the +ve #battery terminal 👎
Also, all the internal wires are grey 🤷‍♂️
Thanks, #designers… 🤦🏼‍♂️

#electronics #tecb #gadget #gadgets #weather #fixing #maintenance #outdoor #Maplin #DesignedToFail #ewaste