Is PeakTech 4250 actually Pico TA009 / TA018 ? (AC/DC current clamp)

[rozwell]

Hello there!

I didn't find explicit confirmation so I decided to create this thread to be sure and so others won't waste so much time to figure this out
From what I gathered, Pico TA018 and PeakTech 4250 have the same PCBs and the only difference seems to be BNC cable + extra shielding in Pico.
They look like they come from the same factory (even fonts are the same) and I believe PeakTech 4250 is actually Pico TA009, but I didn't find any teardowns of TA009 to be 100% sure.

Photos of PCBs in these threads match perfectly:
Pico TA018: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/recommendation-for-a-reasonably-accuarate-dc-amp-clamp/msg5515303#msg5515303
PeakTech 4250: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/peaktech-4250-acdc-current-clamp-teardown-and-repair/msg1398937#msg1398937

Specs also seem to match.

Because of that, I decided to order easily available (2 days shipping) PeakTech 4250 for half the price of Pico TA018 - which had like 2 weeks waiting time - and then upgrade it by replacing banana plugs cable to BNC & add shielding.

Since they share the same issue with voltage regulator ripple (same design after all), I already arranged to get Pico TA018 from my brother in order to fix it for him and compare both units directly.

Hantek CC-65 was also under my consideration but it was more expensive than PeakTech and with even more issues, especially DC offset drift.

Any thoughts?

[rozwell]

Photos stolen from the threads above.

[Phil1977]

I´m quite happy with the PeakTech 4250.

I did replace the cable by one with a BNC connector. Tested with a function generator it´s usable up to 25kHz for absolute measurements and well over 100kHz with a weaker response:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/peaktech-4250-calibration/

The Hantek is even cheaper but lacks DC stability.

The Tektronix current clamp goes up to 1.5MHz but for 20 times the money...