What is your worst "I didn't think this out" purchase..

Mine was the other day, as known, I'm a fan of many consoles and computers, so when a cheap Trilogic Expert cart turned up on ebay, it twanged my memory strings. I used to own one and like the Atari Ominmon, it was in constant use by me, loved them both.

So I buy the thing, it arrives, it has all the adverts etc they sent out with it, and I was over the moon as all the paperwork and more was there, really made it feel like I'd just got it for the first time (yeah I know, silly old bugger).

And then the mistake hit me, I don't have any real disk drives bar the brilliantly emulated ones in the 1541++ cart, notice, it's a cart, and so is the Trliogic Expert. So to use the Expert I have to unplug the 1541++, that leaves me no disk drive to program the cart with (it loads its software from disk).....DOH!!!!!!

Ah I think, the 1541++ emulates lots of carts, maybe I can just emulate it and have the real thing as a keepsake. Doh(2), it's the one cart it can't emulate, infact Vice the emulator tries to emulate it but suffers CPU jams. Feck, back to square one.

So I've had to spend MORE money to get the cheapest SD2IEC drive emulator just to program the cart..

BUGGER..... If only I'd used the so-called brain I have first time, but I'm ok about it in the end, the cart with all the adverts and stuff is so nice and really strums the good old times so much I'd probably still have brought it.

But in truth, it was a major balls up by me..But with a happy (if not poorer) ending..

 

And it's taken a turn for the worse, I've since found out that you can use the ultimate cart detached from the C64 so enabling me to plug the Expert in and use the Ultimate over an Ethernet cable and have a disk drive. So I've purchased an SD2IEC for nothing. Talk about huge balls up, worse still, I had known it could be used stand alone but had totally forgotten about that side..DOH!!!!

 

Folks, I now have an un-used SD2IEC, good for the commodore 8 bit range, so if you need a storage medium aka a disk drive type thing then I have a spare.

 

Oh dear Paul. Still, I think that's something we've probably all done. I know for certain that I have, probably way too many times in fact!

 

Just shows that we can all be brainless numpties at any point.. The joys of life

Also, admitting when you got it wrong is a good thing, shows you can see things from multiple angles....Those folk with the "I'm never wrong" attitude are liars, in order to progress in life you HAVE to get some things wrong in order to see the correct path.

Here endeth my psychology lesson for the day

 

It seems like I've done something similar in the past, but I'll have to think on it and jog my memory. Of course I've purchased stuff before and had issue, due to seller false advertising, trick or just it was cheap crap.

I just recently had a "doh!" moment myself though, I'd say it was the "trick" part I mentioned above. I purchased multi-function tester for semiconductor components (diodes, PNP/NPN transistors) to go with my Retro-Chip Tester board and the ads for these all show the machine displaying ENGLISH but what I got is CHINESE and no way to change the language! I had to download a PDF of the manual, which was at least in English, but I'm going to have to reference it every time I use this device for a translation!

 

I could of course return it and buy the same device from another source and probably get one in English. But I just don't think it's worth all the trouble for an item I payed $15 with free shipping.

This is one of several kits or built testers that were shown on a youtube video I was watching, and the guy showed them all first-hand reviewing them and one he had exactly what I have as I went and ordered it right after watching the video. I was going to get a kit version, but this was only $3 more on Amazon (all versions shown were available on Amazon).

Especially since it's a simple tool with "hard-wired" responses, that is a limited number of things that it shows on the screen and the manual is step-by-step with pictures of the device showing all possible conclusions, so I can reference it for direct translation to what's on the screen.

Eventually I'll get used to seeing the Chinese and know by heart the translation of course. All you do is insert the component and push start and it gives you an answer that it's working (or not) and it's type (if it's working) and of course the voltage/amp readings which are the only responses not "hard-wired" but at least they are Arabic numerals and electronic symbols we all understand world-wide.