Tech Purchase Errors: what was I thinking?!

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#3112656 7-Aug-2023 10:13

reven:

oh in that case

ozito 235mm circular saw, way to big, pita to use. used it once.
bosch workbench drill press, the one with the wheel, pita to use, way to small
the full boar bigger drill press i got to replace the bosch, just stopped working on me, havent had the time to find out why
any and every toolshed brand tool i have ever bought, drop saw, router table, table top belt sander, dust extractor. I finally learnt not to buy their crap.
:)

We had a toolshed depot in our complex....the volume of returns was amazing.

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neb

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#3112804 7-Aug-2023 12:24

mudguard:
That's interesting, I had an S3/4/5 and didn't really notice performance differences with them. I think I still have the 3 or 4 in a box at home.

The worst of the lot are the A-series nominally-budget phones, "oh look I can get a genuine Samsung phone for only a bit more than any other brand with two or three times the specs!". They're so totally crippled and loaded with non-uninstallable bloatware that after either 6-12 months use or installing a few extra apps you can't update them any more because there's no left room to do so. Then you've got the tiny screen, anemic processor that makes everything crawl, horribly unresponsive external controls like power buttons, it's like they deliberately designed them to be as bad as possible so your next buy is a really expensive but non-crippled model.

Edited to add: I'm thinking of the A2x range here, see the posts below.

allan

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#3112811 7-Aug-2023 12:33

neb:
mudguard:

That's interesting, I had an S3/4/5 and didn't really notice performance differences with them. I think I still have the 3 or 4 in a box at home.

The worst of the lot are the A-series nominally-budget phones, "oh look I can get a genuine Samsung phone for only a bit more than any other brand with two or three times the specs!". They're so totally crippled and loaded with non-uninstallable bloatware that after either 6-12 months use or installing a few extra apps you can't update them any more because there's no left room to do so. Then you've got the tiny screen, anemic processor that makes everything crawl, horribly unresponsive external controls like power buttons, it's like they deliberately designed them to be as bad as possible so your next buy is a really expensive but non-crippled model.

Disagree with that actually - not the original A series. I had an A5 and an A8, which were both great phones for their time. Then they kind of reset the series numbering with the A10, A20 etc which fits your description above. Currently have an A53 which suits me fine and was half the price of an S series.

neb

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#3112812 7-Aug-2023 12:34

Geektastic:
Sure, why not? 🤣

For me it's stuff bought speculatively overseas that's either near-impossible to get here or stupid expensive (*cough*Carbatec*cough*), luckily none of it particularly big-budget:

- A fabulous-looking 2-inch slick (local equivalent at over five times the price) for cleaning up mortises and similar that I've never actually used, but damn it looks nice.

- Bora jigsaw guide for cutting long straight pieces that was superseded by a table saw before I ever needed to use it.

- A decent-quality (mostly steel, not mostly plastic, and about 2m long) flexible drill shaft, one of those things you really, really need at some point because there's no other alternative but so far haven't needed.

- Digital depth gauge for plane blades that I've so far never bothered with in preference to just fiddling with it endlessly while doing test cuts.

Probably a few other smaller things that I'd have to go into the workshop to remind me of.

neb

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#3112813 7-Aug-2023 12:38

allan:
Disagree with that actually - not the original A series. I had an A5 and an A8, which were both great phones for their time. Then they kind of reset the series numbering with the A10, A20 etc which fits your description above. Currently have an A53 which suits me fine and was half the price of an S series.

I was thinking of the A2x's, which I've had to help people out with, haven't played with the Ax's. Sort of like what BMW did with the 5 series in the 1990s, lets cut every corner we possibly can while opening up new markets for people who can't afford our usual models. The result was cars that were (literally) worth more as spare parts for other cars of that vintage than as actual cars.

neb

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#3112816 7-Aug-2023 12:42

reven:
bosch workbench drill press, the one with the wheel, pita to use, way to small
the full boar bigger drill press i got to replace the bosch, just stopped working on me, havent had the time to find out why

I've actually looked at both of those, the Bosch is nice because of the electronic variable speed and DRO (no fiddling with belts any more when you want to drill different materials) but that wheel mechanism would drive me nuts, what were they thinking? The Full Boar was my alternative, looks pretty decent for the price, but I haven't really needed either badly enough. At the moment I'm using a Chinese clone of the Woodpeckers drill guide which is good enough.

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#3112817 7-Aug-2023 12:47

Kyanar:
Oooh, not a physical product - but I'm a launch backer of Star Citizen on Kickstarter. That was thirteen years ago. And it's still "in development".

I have a fancy Concierge VIP card somewhere. Cant believe after 13years that "game" is still janky.

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mdf

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#3112825 7-Aug-2023 13:15

reven:

bosch workbench drill press, the one with the wheel, pita to use, way to small
any and every toolshed brand tool i have ever bought, drop saw, router table, table top belt sander, dust extractor. I finally learnt not to buy their crap.
<selective snips>

Agree to disagree, but I have the Bosch drill press and really like it. Though I do agree, the wheel takes some getting used to, but I find it fine now (key for me is adjusting it to the height of the workpiece before I start drilling). But key features for me are the unit moving c.f. the table - I had in mounted in a bigger workbench (and will again once I've finished building the replacement), and speed adjust with a button c.f. moving belts. The chuck could be a bit better though.

For The Toolshed branded tools, I've found looking at the quality badge key. Anything "trade-badged" is typically great, and "professional-badged" is reasonable/good value for money. The DIY stuff... perhaps less so. Toolshed trade-badged handtools are great.

hucknz

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#3112870 7-Aug-2023 16:01

Mine would definitely be the iPad. So cool and yet so completely pointless in my life.

Funny, the iPad would rank amongst my best purchases. I'm on my 3rd one and use it every day.

My worst would have to be the fitness tracker I backed. For once it was actually funded, produced, and I actually got it. The point of difference is that it had a shoe clip so it would more accurately track movement but it never quite worked out (pun intended). It is amazing how much that technology has changed in 10 years. I think that thing is still in a drawer somewhere.

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#3112876 7-Aug-2023 16:27

I've been wanting to get a basic laser level for ages - to effectively replace use of a spirit level for such tasks as picture hanging. But I'm concerned it will end up as a post in this thread!

mdf

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#3112881 7-Aug-2023 16:33

I went through quite the phase of buying cheap tech alternatives from AliExpress / eBay. The one that stands out was an HDMI audio decoder thing since it didn't work properly and the seller was a real d!ck about it, but there is plenty of other junk in that list. Am now very much in the "buy one, cry once" camp.

I am also no fan of our central heating system. The system itself is okay, though the controllers are dumb. So rather than really controlling things centrally, I get to walk around each zone of the house twice a day setting them individually.

neb

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#3112889 7-Aug-2023 17:01

mdf:
I am also no fan of our central heating system. The system itself is okay, though the controllers are dumb. So rather than really controlling things centrally, I get to walk around each zone of the house twice a day setting them individually.

Does it have anything like Modbus control capabilities? The full-house dehumidifier here has that, been tempted to enslave it to the automation system, for example to not run if the house is running off battery power. It would also mean not having to use their annoying control panel to drive it.

networkn

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#3112890 7-Aug-2023 17:03

Almost anything I bought that was the cheap version of a decent product :) Some things have worked out OK, but I usually don't risk it any more.

mattwnz

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#3112919 7-Aug-2023 17:45

Microsoft Windows Surface RT tablet has to go down as one of the worst. Terrible windows 8 type interface and they decided to stop supporting it fairly early. Couldn't install any software apaprt from windows 8 app store apps which were limited. Ran out of storage as well after windows updates and slowed down to a crawl. Lucikliy I got it cheap.

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#3112970 7-Aug-2023 19:52

I have a laser tape measure.

Why? So I can accurately set up loudspeakers. The device has never measured anything even vaguely construction related.

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