List your test equipment "scores" here!

[jmw]

My growing tower of used Agilent/Keysight gear. The latest addition is the E36312A, which is my first "paint it black" instrument. I was happy to score this for under $1K delivered since it's so new.

The U8001A was the first bench supply I bought for a bargain price, had a loose front panel but I did some plastic repair.

The 34461A I bought from blueskull, Godspeed wherever he is these days.

[tautech]

The 34461A I bought from blueskull, Godspeed wherever he is these days.

In Shenzhen and doing quite well last time we chatted.
After getting banned too often for retaliating at anti Asian posters/stirrers he left these shores and asked Dave to delete all his posts.
Shame on those stirrers as we are all the poorer for his loss.

[Shock]

I'll just point out he also posted his own anti west rhetoric as well and often contradicted himself. Considering some of your income is selling Chinese brand products you can't exactly claim you don't also have a horse in the race. I'm not wanting to go round in circles on this with you, just saying he isn't exactly innocent either.

[tautech]

Each to their own Shock and I can honestly say the Chinese have always treated me well as blueskull did whom I followed with interest in all the years he trained in the US finally gaining a EE Doctorate in Power Electronics before returning to Shenzhen to again be with his family that made significant sacrifices so to complete his education.
Say what you like about the man but the fact remains we as a EE forum are much the poorer for his absence.

The Chinese are a proud race that on the whole should not be tarnished by the actions of the CCP as they only want the same as us, an improving standard of living for each following generation.

However business dealings I've had with Aussies are at the other end of the scale where their history of the last couple of century's has certainly maintained the POME breeding and replicated it in the flesh.
For that I am sorry for you.

[beanflying]

Rabid Nationalism regardless of Country is the issue. Country X is superior to country Y because of 'reasons' is a complete crock of sh1t !

Where the Chinese have not yet found a balance of any sort is that a minor (or ANY for that matter) critique is a total affront to 'all Chinese' and let us rally around the fake non communist Party doctrine in defense. This is not unique at all and you can insert a bunch of Countries into that same hurt and offended mentality whenever they get called on item Z.

For the last 2-3 decades I have brought goods out of mainland China for others and for the last 15 or so years for my own Business and 'Nationalism' has never been a thing that has entered into commercial decisions or negotiations.

Everyone needs to go take a cold shower before chest beating, flag waving or flopping their phalluses out in public.

[Shock]

However business dealings I've had with Aussies are at the other end of the scale where their history of the last couple of century's has certainly maintained the POME breeding and replicated it in the flesh. For that I am sorry for you.

I've never heard yorkshire pudding mentioned in a business setting.

[beanflying]

I bought a 0.1 Resistor for about $50 AU pesos. (under $35 USD)

It was 'Tested to 0.096 ohms with my old wheatstone bridge.' by the seller so pleased he used the old bridge rather than the new one 

It fills a bit of a gap in my Standard Resistors (already have a 1, 10, 100, 1000) but purchased more for being made by a local Instrument maker in Melbourne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_William

A plaything and one to sit on the shelf and keep dusted and cobweb free.



Edit: Quick post arrival check on the 34461A not to shabby on both counts (light clean of the posts and 100PLC) and time to get the Milliohm Meter out for a proper measurement. Firing my cleaner as well

[n1ist]

From the previous MIT flea - Tek 2336 with 3 sets of probes.  Works fine except for the LCD in the lid.  Didn't even bargain; got it for $5

[wkb]

That is a really neat, cute, scope! 

[PaulAm]

Just picked up an HP 54620c 16 channel color logic analyzer.  Really nice for doing small projects.

Got it for about 100US and, although not indicated in the ebay listing, it included the logic pod (which are listed on ebay starting at around $100).  So it turned out to be a pretty decent deal even if shipping from Canada to the US is a bit pricey.

[danils]

Hello there!

A couple years ago I was looking for an audio analyser for my lab.
On "the bay" I stepped into the auction of a R&S UPL with full options, it also had the B1 - analog low distortion generator - option that is quite rare on the used ones you find around and turns it into something useful for modern audio electronics.

The seller shop was selling every kind of stuff: lamps, furniture, car parts etc. so he absolutely had no idea of what it was and he said he retrieved it from a dismissed company lab.

I make an offer and I took it home for 1000 eur. I removed dust, I cleaned old label stains from it and it was brand new and perfectly calibrated.

I used it and resold recently for twice the sum 

[rsjsouza]

In a recent auction, I scored several things and, among them, a few GPIB goodies: an NI GPIB ISA card, several HP GPIB cables and the crown jewel: a 82357B.

The 82357B was not working and had signs of being opened. I was afraid it was a brick but, upon inspection, the problem was that the internal USB cable was simply disconnected.   

All this was joined by a few other items (a couple of ancient industrial PCs, some beefy power supplies and a few other bits) for sixty Texan pesos. It was my lucky day!

[wolfy007]

Not exactly an equipment score, but just saved these two manuals from the paper recycling bin. Finally have a real manual to go with my two 2465...   

[wkb]

This one followed me home from a ham fest last Saturday 

Wilko

[wolfy007]

A friend gave me his late fathers Fluke 8010a multimeter, which I gave a quick clean up and test. Oh and I removed the internal battery just in time it seems, had just started to leak, so dont forget to check for internal batteries if it has battery option.

[Neepa]

My biggest score was a brand new TTI CPX400DP power supply.

Minimum bid 600 Euros which I did just to test my luck and shockingly won. Just under half original price. Seemingly came from a dissolving business.

The seller even gratulated me to winning it at such an insultingly low price!

Recently I scored the HP16058A Test Fixture including the connector boards, almsot all of them, for a nice 150$. Shipping to Germany was 110$ alone and I still am unsure about customs....

Still considerably cheaper than the other offers over on the bay. Especially for the whole set once included with the 4145A Semiconductor Analyzer.
Gotta make a thread documenting my journey with that tombstone.

[Fungus]

OK, not test gear, but... I know Dave collects calculators.

I just scored a CASIO Mini 40th anniversary calculator. Only 400 ever made, never sold to the public. 

[BillyO]

I managed to score 3 Tek probes in perfect working condition.  Two 500MHz P6139A (complete) and a 250MHz P6130 (missing hook) for less than $48 US.

[bingo600]

I managed to score 3 Tek probes in perfect working condition.  Two 500MHz P6139A (complete) and a 250MHz P6130 (missing hook) for less than $48 US.

Congrats BillyO 
I think i know where the 39A' probes will be used ....

Have been looking too , but the "good offers" are abroad.
And the shipping/import tax/fee are "killing" the deal

[BillyO]

Congrats BillyO 
I think i know where the 39A' probes will be used ....

Have been looking too , but the "good offers" are abroad.
And the shipping/import tax/fee are "killing" the deal

Yup. they are being used on chs. 1 & 3 of my "improved" SDS2104XP.  The color rings give it away.

I was lucky enough to find these in a store about 30 minutes drive away.  The deals on fleaBay I was seeing were all quite expensive with incomplete units asking $90 or more and complete ones going for well over $100 each.

I see some made in China 500MHz ones for about $60.  I wonder how well they actually work?

[HalFoster]

I'd watched several Elgar CW801P programmable AC power supplies selling on ePay for around 1K lately, then they had one advertised as not having an output.  They did, however, show that it passed it's power on self test. So, I wound up getting it for $150 and simply used the front panel to change the voltage control from "Analog Input" on back to the front panel controls. Que Happy Dance 

Hal

[BillyO]

I see some made in China 500MHz ones for about $60.  I wonder how well they actually work?

I just ordered one tonight - $38 USD.  When it gets in I'll test it and make a post about it.

It's even called a "P6139" - LOL!  I wonder where they got that idea?

[robert.rozee]

this week scored a Fluke 45, with battery option but no GPIB. the price (on Trademe - https://www.trademe.co.nz/) was nz$50 buy-now, plus nz$22 shipping. this equates to a little under us$45 in total.

the condition was pretty ok, although was a tad dirty on the outside. it looked like it had been used in a garage, and indeed was listed under Motors -> Car parts & accessories -> Tools & repair kits -> Meters & testers. it came with a set of Philips branded test leads (shrouded plugs both ends) and, strangely enough, a 230v to 110v step-down transformer. i've verified this is not needed - we have 230v mains here in new zealand, powered directly with a 25w light bulb in series showed a mere 5v drop across the bulb.


there were some ghost segments lighting up on the VFD, but this was quite intermittent and faded completely after being turned on for a while. unfortunately, after turning off for a further while the ghosting returned when turned back on. i traced this ghosting down to light corrosion deposits near the top edge of the display PCB where the row of VFD leads were soldered, with corrosion visible between some pins.

i desoldered the VFD, thoroughly cleaned, and resoldered back in place with the envelope spaced 3-layers of paper away from the PCB. the ghosting is now gone, and the VFD is a good even brightness. i feel the likely source of the corrosion was from the aluminium case shell which sits extremely close to the top edge of the display PCB, and from which the PCB has minimal clearance/protection.


the batteries (4x 2v lead-acid cells) were extremely kaput. has anyone ever tried substituting 2x or 3x Li-Ion cells, with the charging levels (9.35v and 9.25v) adjusting up/down as appropriate? it looks like internally the meter is fairly happy with anything from 7.5v up to 35v.


cheers,
rob   :-)

[Veteran68]

Forgot this thread existed until I saw it bumped today, so thought I'd repeat my recent score here.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-new-bench-dmm-sdm3055/msg5036881/#msg5036881

Got the SDM3065X in today. Confirmed it was never powered up before (power on count was 1). Only one revision behind on firmware which coincides with its factory calibration date of last year; updated it to latest R12 release. All self-tests passed. DCV and resistance measurements against my Agilent 34401A are pretty much dead on as you can see below. Capacitance was dead on against my BM786 and BM869s handhelds. The 34401A has been powered up for days, the voltage standard and handhelds were just turned on. Using Probe Master probes in both (one set the springy needle probes, the other standard probes).

$510 delivered for a brand-new factory sealed SDM3065X only a year out of the factory is shaping up to be one of my better scores in this hobby, up there with my $250 very clean, late model Agilent 34401A (also bought off this forum). So I'm 2 for 2 with test equipment purchases off eevBlog!

[the Chris]

If the search on this forum yields just 6 results for the HP model you picked up, you know that it is not the usual stuff.

HP 4280A. Self-test reports no errors. Built a probe out of a BNC cable and measured the input impedance of my Rigol DHO1070 at 19.4pF, spec'd 19pF +/- 3pF. Nice.