Cheap Ghz SMD resistors

[Nico Coesel]

Anyone know a source for cheap resistors (0402 or 0603 package) that
are usefull up to around 4GHz? Small quantities ofcourse. The ones I
found so far costs around $7 each.

 

[Joerg]

Anyone know a source for cheap resistors (0402 or 0603 package) that
are usefull up to around 4GHz? Small quantities ofcourse. The ones I
found so far costs around $7 each.

Since you are in Europe you could ask here:
http://www.willow.co.uk/html/rf_resistors.html

Or ask these guys where the distributors are:
http://www.nikkohm.com/products.htm

 

[Joerg]

Mouser. Digikey. Ordinary one-cent surface mount resistors work fine
at 4 GHz. At very low impedances, it's sometimes worth putting two in
parallel, like for terminating a 25 ohm line.

At higher impedances, the pad parasitic capacitance starts to
dominate, no matter how much the resistor costs.

This was in the 90's, not sure how they behave today: If the meander
cuts for trim were grossly non-symmetrical it helped to use two
resistors of twice the needed value on top of each other, with one being
upside down. Probably best to flip the lower one so you can still read a
part value.

What are you working on? How precise do the impedances need to be?

If you're working with stuff like this, a great investment is a 20 GHz
TDR scope, so you can fool around with parts and layout geometries and
such. It doesn't take many board spins to pay for an ebay TDR system.

If they just weren't so freaking bulky ...

 

[Joerg]

We recently did a sort of fast pulser

http://www.highlandtechnology.com/DSS/J240DS.html

Nice enclosure. Who buys this kind of gear? University research labs?

and tried mounting some of the 0603 resistors upside-down. It didn't
make any difference. This box can make 50 ps edges, which corresponds
to about 7 GHz bandwidth, all surface-mount Digikey-type Rs and Cs on
FR4.

I meant two stacked and one of them flipped. But possibly the deposition
process is more precise than in the 90's and the meander cuts are
miniscule nowadays, then it wouldn't make a difference.

I sometimes splay out two resistors at 90 or 180 degrees, as
terminators, to reduce stray inductance, but still flat, not stacked.
Seems to help a little.



I hire big, young interns.

Main thing is, you've got the space. Plus that crane

I'd love to do a tiny USB TDR pod, but it's hard to compete with all
that stuff on ebay.

But from what you said a while ago most of the sampling heads of the TDR
scopes sold 2nd hand are shot. I can't imagine the ordinary user
figuring out how to mess with the diodes and stuff in there. Of course,
who needs TDR this fast and accurate? Installers narrow it down to a few
feet and then fire up the backhoe.

 

[Joerg]

We did the gaussian pulse version for a Canadian laser company. We put
in the hooks for the other versions and put it up on the web as a
standard product. I did the pcb layout myself! We'll get some press
releases out of it, too, and maybe somebody else will buy some.

We may do a 6-volt version too, to drive e/o modulators directly.

Maybe you could let a company like Thorlabs carry and sell it.

And the water-powered hydraulic freight elevator!

Wow, maybe you can put that on your web site, into a "history" section.

Nearly all the ebay claimed-good heads have actually been good, or the
sellers took them back. A few of the "untested" ones had a channel
out, or were totally dead, but they were cheap.

Here's the insides of one...

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/SD20.zip

As you can see, the guts are unrepairable. Sometimes the eeprom dies,
and the scope won't talk to the head, and I suspect I can replace that
eeprom with one copied from a good head. I have maybe a dozen like
that. Spare-time project.

I don't think we've ever blown up a sampling head in-house. We use 20
dB attenuators whenever possible.

Amazing. I wonder where they got the super-small SMT parts for the
actual head, considering that these were probably built in the 80's.
Although picture 005x seems to show a 1995 number.

 

[Joerg]

An update. I was reminded to go through my lab wants list and do a bit
of maintenance on it, because my $350 HP 35665A finally arrived after
being stuck in a customs warehouse in Jersey for over 2 weeks. (A bit
of shining up and a twist of one pot, and the display is bright enough
to fry eggs on. Beautiful.)

Sooo, I flipped over to eBay and looked for SD14s. Whadda ya know,
there was one going for cheap, and *ending in 5 minutes.* So now I'm
waiting for my new $175 SD14 (hopefully it'll actually work).

Congrats!


This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be buying
test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one never
knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the business property
tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus. Plus a lot of places have
been vacant for over a year so they are all negative cash flow.

 

[Joerg]

John Larkin wrote:

[...]

Amazing. I wonder where they got the super-small SMT parts for the
actual head, considering that these were probably built in the 80's.
Although picture 005x seems to show a 1995 number.

These heads were hybrids, raw, unpackaged silicon chips wire-bonded to
a metalized ceramic substrate. That way predates what we call surface
mount.

Ok, that sure would make them unrepairable for ordinary folks. Maybe
occasionally you could find a SMT diode or something that's small enough
to be crammed in.

 

[Nico Coesel]

We recently did a sort of fast pulser

http://www.highlandtechnology.com/DSS/J240DS.html

and tried mounting some of the 0603 resistors upside-down. It didn't
make any difference. This box can make 50 ps edges, which corresponds
to about 7 GHz bandwidth, all surface-mount Digikey-type Rs and Cs on
FR4.

Sounds like I can get away with that too. I'll probably use 0402 parts
to preserve board space.

I sometimes splay out two resistors at 90 or 180 degrees, as
terminators, to reduce stray inductance, but still flat, not stacked.
Seems to help a little.

Its an idea for a measurement product (don't worry, nowhere near the
stuff you are doing). I need the resistors mostly for transmission
line termination. Since traces on FR4 and the internal impedances of
the chips aren't very accurate 1% precision will do.

I have been looking into a sampling scope but they are bulky (that
will cost me at least $200 for shipping) and ofcourse the heads may be
bad. It does take a while before a complete kit for a reasonable price
comes along.

BTW for some unknown reason that sort of 'special' equipment is very
very rare on the 2nd hand market over here. The last two logic
analyzers that I bought and most of the accesoires came from the US.

 

[Joerg]

It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities in
residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a couple of
years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc, and she's stuck
here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp folks that means that
her health insurance won't pay for surgery until the comp claim is
settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a year off university, working
part time and doing some music classes. She has a wonderful opera voice
and likes singing a lot, which makes the house sound better but seem
smaller. (She sounds a great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that
sort of thing.) #1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6
feet 6, and would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to
watch football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.

That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny flat
or another building close by. The beauty of being self-employed is not
being away from home so much but with an office building somewhere in
town that advantage would go away.

[...]

 

[Joerg]

Phil Hobbs wrote:

[...]

There's a little business development about 2 miles from here that has
some flex space I have my eye on. Ground floor, southern exposure, lots
of windows, electrics good for running servers...but they want $19/sq
foot, including nothing but the base rent and the base year's taxes.

That's $19/sqft per year, right? That would be roughly what space goes
for out here.

After dividing the space it would be around 1500 sq ft, which is more
than I need, but would be about right for me and one or two colleagues.
I have a pal from church who's a real estate guru, fortunately, so
hopefully I can avoid stepping on any land mines in the process. (I'm
not going to sign any multi-year leases without incorporating first--I'm
much too attached to my sleep.)

Then they won't throw in much in tenant improvements but that's usually
ok for a consulting business.

The granny flat would be another possibility, but it would look weird
bolted on to a raised ranch, which might make the place hard to sell.
I've thought about putting a glassed-in solarium on the back of the
house, which would be great in spring and fall (NY being NY).

I meant as a separate building in the yard, not attached. Attachments
can really look yucky and destroy the character of a house. Maybe make
it look like a nice barn.

None of that will matter unless my ship really comes in, of
course--we'll see. It would be a lot cheaper to move to Florida,
either way!

From a business perspective a place like Montana might be better. But
for my wife it would be too freaking cold out there. Maybe Arkansas,
Alabama?

 

[Charlie E.]

There are a lot of nice homes for sale down here in North Central
Florida, along with some business space that's reasonable. Another idea
that you can do around here is buy a portable garage for a small home
shop. They are delivered fully assembled and wired. Add a large
portable storage building, and you have enough room for a one man
operation.

There is no state income tax, food is reasonable and the utility
rates are lower than some other areas of the country. I have I 75 a few
miles from me, and a decent airport on the other side of town.

There are some old motels for sale cheap. The offices usually have a
manager's apartment. Several have been converted to other business
uses. Cut a few doorways out between some of the motel rooms and you
have office space, Others can be used for the kids, or if a customer is
there overnight.

Buy or build a rental storage business, and make money off it while
having all the space you need in a couple large spaces. Lots of
possibilities down south.

A 120,000 square foot complex recently sold for $1,000,000. That was
$8.33 a square foot to own it.

Yeah, when I was getting to move in here, a little old '60s era motel
was on the market in Borrego. It was fully solar powered, had like
ten rooms, plus the manager's space, for $450K. I was tempted, but
had decided to move out of Borrego by that time. The pool was nice,
though.

Charlie

 

[Charlie E.]

Yeah, when I was getting to move in here, a little old '60s era motel
was on the market in Borrego. It was fully solar powered, had like
ten rooms, plus the manager's space, for $450K. I was tempted, but
had decided to move out of Borrego by that time. The pool was nice,
though.

Charlie

Ok, a little more searching found:

http://www.silvercrest.com/SoCal/backyardhome/index.htm

These are kinda pretty, and would be ideal for office an lab space!

Charlie

 

[Charlie E.]

Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the business
property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus. Plus a lot of
places have been vacant for over a year so they are all negative
cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on spec.
There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain round here
too...leases appear always to include only the base year's taxes.
The competing possibilities are to move house or add on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to wherever
their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also, check the
rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's pretty easy to
put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so. You'd have to inquire
first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities in
residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a couple of
years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc, and she's stuck
here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp folks that means that
her health insurance won't pay for surgery until the comp claim is
settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a year off university, working
part time and doing some music classes. She has a wonderful opera voice
and likes singing a lot, which makes the house sound better but seem
smaller. (She sounds a great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that
sort of thing.) #1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6
feet 6, and would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to
watch football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.


That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny flat
or another building close by. The beauty of being self-employed is not
being away from home so much but with an office building somewhere in
town that advantage would go away.

[...]

Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie

Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot of
VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think about it,
though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of course the
zoning round here is pretty ferocious....

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Whoops! Just posted another link to I don't know what thread...

Here is the nice one I was thinking of...

http://www.silvercrest.com/SoCal/backyardhome/index.htm

Pretty, and yet very efficient!

Charlie

 

[Joerg]

Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the
business property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus.
Plus a lot of places have been vacant for over a year so they are
all negative cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on spec.
There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain round
here too...leases appear always to include only the base year's
taxes. The competing possibilities are to move house or add
on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to wherever
their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also, check the
rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's pretty easy to
put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so. You'd have to inquire
first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities
in residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a
couple of years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc,
and she's stuck here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp
folks that means that her health insurance won't pay for surgery
until the comp claim is settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a
year off university, working part time and doing some music
classes. She has a wonderful opera voice and likes singing a lot,
which makes the house sound better but seem smaller. (She sounds a
great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that sort of thing.)
#1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6 feet 6, and
would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to watch
football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.


That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny
flat or another building close by. The beauty of being self-employed
is not being away from home so much but with an office building
somewhere in town that advantage would go away.

[...]

Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie

Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot of
VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think about it,
though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of course the
zoning round here is pretty ferocious....

If you have no regular customer traffic and just work from home, what
can they do? If they prohibited work from home that's called
discrimination and a class would rather quickly be formed

 

[krw]

Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the
business property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus.
Plus a lot of places have been vacant for over a year so they are
all negative cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on spec.
There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain round
here too...leases appear always to include only the base year's
taxes. The competing possibilities are to move house or add
on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to wherever
their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also, check the
rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's pretty easy to
put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so. You'd have to inquire
first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities
in residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a
couple of years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc,
and she's stuck here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp
folks that means that her health insurance won't pay for surgery
until the comp claim is settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a
year off university, working part time and doing some music
classes. She has a wonderful opera voice and likes singing a lot,
which makes the house sound better but seem smaller. (She sounds a
great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that sort of thing.)
#1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6 feet 6, and
would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to watch
football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.


That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny
flat or another building close by. The beauty of being self-employed
is not being away from home so much but with an office building
somewhere in town that advantage would go away.

[...]

Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie

Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot of
VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think about it,
though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of course the
zoning round here is pretty ferocious....

If you have no regular customer traffic and just work from home, what
can they do? If they prohibited work from home that's called
discrimination and a class would rather quickly be formed

They would try, trust me. However, without traffic it's hard to tell.
The issue here, I think, is the added "manufactured housing" space.
Westchester CO will *certainly* balk at that. An office in his
basement would never be found, unless his server (or other) farm was
enough to make the meter spin.

 

[Joerg]

Charlie E. wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the
business property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus.
Plus a lot of places have been vacant for over a year so they
are all negative cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on
spec. There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain
round here too...leases appear always to include only the base
year's taxes. The competing possibilities are to move house or
add on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to
wherever their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also,
check the rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's
pretty easy to put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so.
You'd have to inquire first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities
in residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a
couple of years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc,
and she's stuck here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp
folks that means that her health insurance won't pay for surgery
until the comp claim is settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a
year off university, working part time and doing some music
classes. She has a wonderful opera voice and likes singing a lot,
which makes the house sound better but seem smaller. (She sounds a
great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that sort of thing.)
#1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6 feet 6, and
would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to watch
football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.


That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny
flat or another building close by. The beauty of being
self-employed is not being away from home so much but with an
office building somewhere in town that advantage would go away.

[...]

Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie


Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot
of VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think
about it, though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of
course the zoning round here is pretty ferocious....

If you have no regular customer traffic and just work from home, what
can they do? If they prohibited work from home that's called
discrimination and a class would rather quickly be formed

I meant building something in the back yard. Round here you get a
ticket for having a small sailboat in your back yard.

Briarcliff Manor NY: All the fun of a HOA with police enforcement to boot.

That would get my blood boiling and I'd be outta there rather soon ;-)

 

[krw]

Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Charlie E. wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the
business property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus.
Plus a lot of places have been vacant for over a year so they
are all negative cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on
spec. There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain
round here too...leases appear always to include only the base
year's taxes. The competing possibilities are to move house or
add on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to
wherever their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also,
check the rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's
pretty easy to put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so.
You'd have to inquire first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities
in residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a
couple of years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc,
and she's stuck here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp
folks that means that her health insurance won't pay for surgery
until the comp claim is settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a
year off university, working part time and doing some music
classes. She has a wonderful opera voice and likes singing a lot,
which makes the house sound better but seem smaller. (She sounds a
great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that sort of thing.)
#1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6 feet 6, and
would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to watch
football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.


That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny
flat or another building close by. The beauty of being
self-employed is not being away from home so much but with an
office building somewhere in town that advantage would go away.

[...]

Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie


Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot
of VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think
about it, though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of
course the zoning round here is pretty ferocious....


If you have no regular customer traffic and just work from home, what
can they do? If they prohibited work from home that's called
discrimination and a class would rather quickly be formed


I meant building something in the back yard. Round here you get a
ticket for having a small sailboat in your back yard.

Briarcliff Manor NY: All the fun of a HOA with police enforcement to boot.

That would get my blood boiling and I'd be outta there rather soon ;-)

Everyone should flee the nanny states, before they get nannied ;-) ...

Yeah, and move to AZ, like Nomad. ;-)

 

[Don Klipstein]

If I had to "spread out" from my home and own or rent some commercial or
industrial property to work from at least nominally,

I would get into a good mood for Mississauga, Ontario, or someplace
nearby to the north (maybe Brampton) or to the west.

Mississauga appears to me to be the most industrial city in North
America north of the Rio Grande. I suspect its massive industry content
and its great population growth rate say good news about tax structure.

It appears to me that Mississauga has gigatonnage-plus of "industrial
parks", and I suspect that there are places in Mississauga to rent at a
cheap rate a hidey-hole where nobody has any problems with operating wave
soldering machines, arc welders, and adventurous prototypes.

Toronto appears to me to have tax structure worse than Mississauga, but
I know a recently-retired Toronto police detective who built up a little
business for himself manufacturing specialty lighting products and things
good to make with a "garage" machine shop - and his away-from-home office
is in Toronto rather than Mississauga.

For those who live where a commute to Canada is doable even if only a
day or two per week, I would advise looking into putting the workplace
(or at least the nominal one) north of the border.

- Don Klipstein ([email protected])

 

[Joerg]

Charlie E. wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the
business property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus.
Plus a lot of places have been vacant for over a year so they are
all negative cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on spec.
There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain round
here too...leases appear always to include only the base year's
taxes. The competing possibilities are to move house or add
on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to wherever
their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also, check the
rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's pretty easy to
put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so. You'd have to inquire
first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities
in residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a
couple of years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc,
and she's stuck here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp
folks that means that her health insurance won't pay for surgery
until the comp claim is settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a
year off university, working part time and doing some music
classes. She has a wonderful opera voice and likes singing a lot,
which makes the house sound better but seem smaller. (She sounds a
great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that sort of thing.)
#1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6 feet 6, and
would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to watch
football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.

That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny
flat or another building close by. The beauty of being self-employed
is not being away from home so much but with an office building
somewhere in town that advantage would go away.

[...]
Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie


Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot of
VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think about it,
though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of course the
zoning round here is pretty ferocious....

If you have no regular customer traffic and just work from home, what
can they do? If they prohibited work from home that's called
discrimination and a class would rather quickly be formed

They would try, trust me. ...

They might try, once

... However, without traffic it's hard to tell.
The issue here, I think, is the added "manufactured housing" space.
Westchester CO will *certainly* balk at that. An office in his
basement would never be found, unless his server (or other) farm was
enough to make the meter spin.

If they'd discriminate against a freelance electronics guy but not
against a mom that does some typing work or medical coding from home, or
a freelance journalist, that would end up in a huge jury award for the
electronics guy.

 

[krw]

Phil Hobbs wrote:
Charlie E. wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
Joerg wrote:
Phil Hobbs wrote:
This year stinks in some ways, but it's an amazing time to be
buying test equipment.

True. Same for industrial real estate. Except that out here one
never knows whether and when the left blows a hole into the
business property tax cap (Prop 13) which can cause an exodus.
Plus a lot of places have been vacant for over a year so they are
all negative cash flow.

I'm looking around for some lab/office space myself, just on spec.
There's lots around. Still, the taxes are quite uncertain round
here too...leases appear always to include only the base year's
taxes. The competing possibilities are to move house or add
on...ick.

But you've got a fairly big house. If the kids move out to wherever
their universities are you'd have plenty of room. Also, check the
rules about granny flats. In many jurisdictions it's pretty easy to
put one up if not larger than 1200sqft or so. You'd have to inquire
first.
It's about 2200 square feet, with 5 larger-than-life personalities
in residence at the moment. Our #1 daughter Bronwen graduated a
couple of years ago, but is off work with a badly herniated disc,
and she's stuck here because there's a fight with the Workers Comp
folks that means that her health insurance won't pay for surgery
until the comp claim is settled...#2 daughter Magdalen is taking a
year off university, working part time and doing some music
classes. She has a wonderful opera voice and likes singing a lot,
which makes the house sound better but seem smaller. (She sounds a
great deal like Audra Macdonald, for fans of that sort of thing.)
#1 son Simon is a senior in high school, is nearly 6 feet 6, and
would like to have someplace to bring his friends and to watch
football. So Maureen and I are hip deep in offspring at
present--which is really rather pleasant, but definitely crowded.

Thus my taking up space in the basement and needing lots of quiet
doesn't fit too well with the rhythm of the place, unfortunately.

That is one full house. I guess your only options would be a granny
flat or another building close by. The beauty of being self-employed
is not being away from home so much but with an office building
somewhere in town that advantage would go away.

[...]
Phil,
Don't know where you are located, or what lot size you have. A few
years ago, while looking into buying manufactured housing, I found
several different little 'houses' that would make good offices. One
such is:

http://www.fleetwoodhomes.com/fpf/models.asp

There were better ones available, but I can't find them now. One had a
large living room, kitchenette, and small 'bedroom' area that would
have made a great office space.

Charlie


Thanks. I can't get to that web site because they seem to use a lot of
VBScript, which Firefox doesn't support. I'll certainly think about it,
though--I could do a lot with even 500 square feet. Of course the
zoning round here is pretty ferocious....

If you have no regular customer traffic and just work from home, what
can they do? If they prohibited work from home that's called
discrimination and a class would rather quickly be formed

They would try, trust me. ...

They might try, once

You don't know NewYawk politicians and other like busy bodies.

If they'd discriminate against a freelance electronics guy but not
against a mom that does some typing work or medical coding from home, or
a freelance journalist, that would end up in a huge jury award for the
electronics guy.

Freelance electronics types aren't a protected class; discrimination
is perfectly legal. ;-)/2

Seriously, just because one person does something illegal doesn't give
license to another. No award at all.