@jippie LoL!

Is the proper way to use a common cathode alphanumeric display (datasheet) with Arduino to multiplex and switch the cathode pins on and off by changing between input and output? I can't find any reference.

@NickAlexeev could you specify "other stuff"? ;o)

@jippie From other stuff category: EDA software, EMI suppression materials, thermal management materials.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one important things. There was free beer. Seriously.

@NickAlexeev Nice. I didn't go to the show, but a couple of vendors stopped by because they were in town.

Also I'm trying to get my SI colleagues to help design a stackup but I think they're all off at the show

@NickAlexeev Guess I missed the beer and goodies then.

@NickAlexeev I've been to an exhibition once where drinks, including beer, were free ... one stand had very happy personell. Left not a good impression with me.

@jippie At the last show I went to one of the German companies (Schott Glass? Huber+Suhner? Rohde&Schwartz? I don't remember at all) was serving pretzels and beer. I think they even had the server wear lederhosen.

I should have told them that as a Bavarian-American I was offended by their gross caricature of my culture...and they should serve me double beer to compensate.

I found an H+S 50 ohm feed through terminator DC-1.2GHz and a matching 6 dB attenuator. Do you think they are any good? ;o)

@jippie Depends where you found them. If you found them in the trash bin beneath another guy's bench, probably not.

@ThePhoton No in my basement, probably took them home once when my old employer stopped analog and RF electronics stuff.

If I knew then what I knew now, both about the company and where the rest of the gear has gone ...

@jippie Well 1.2 GHz is pretty low spec nowadays. But if it's BNC type I guess that's about as good as it's going to get.

@ThePhoton It fits my scope nicely and I don't have any measurement equipment that does better thann 100 MHz

@ThePhoton I bet it is closer to 50 ohm than the 1$ terminator I bought and attach to a T-piece.

@jippie It's probably got a nice coaxial resistor in it. Like a washer shape with one contact on the inner edge and one on the outer edge.

@ThePhoton you are probably right, we didn't do much above 1GHz when I worked there. They did however have a piece of calibrated coaxial cable which was spec'd up to 10 GHz.

@ThePhoton Something tells me I shouldn't open it to check.

The cable was from the old days ..

@jippie What do you spec about it? electrical length? Loss?

attenuation and ... I guess phase?

@ThePhoton had a nice piece of paper with a couple plots on it.

phase / electrical length ... pretty similar?

@jippie yep