Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Berni]

HP 8642B is very well boatanchory ...

boatanchory

Oooooh, I like it 

You know you are doing it right when shipping is half the cost of the actual item.

[bitseeker]

Oh, crap.  I've got it and I just started 2 months ago.  2 bench DMM's, 2 oscilloscopes, 4 dual PSU, 2 waveform generators.   Oh hell, what have I done?   I need help.

Hmm, that seems like quite a nice lab to me. Don't forget the soldering iron, hot air gun, and desoldering station. I suppose if you're feeling like you have some GAS, you could sell one or two of those PSU to get the soldering equipment.

[mtdoc]

Forgive me, I have sinned.

I got tired of waiting for Dave's new DMM to be ready and I really wanted needed another quality handheld DMM, so I bought one of the $200 eBay new (old stock) Agilent U1252B's.   

It has arrived and I love it. It is a thing of beauty.  Oh man, my Brymen 257 and Fluke 87V are gonna have to share their bench space now. 

Now what will I do when Dave's meter is finally ready?

Lord help me....  

[edpalmer42]

Don't know what you 'Volt' guys are whining about.

You want to see some heavy duty GAS, become a Time-Nut!  Then you get to collect test gear *and* sources!   

Counters:

Racal Dana 1992, Agilent 53131A, Fluke PM6681, HP 5370A, HP 5372A, Wavecrest DTS-2077, EIP 545A
.... not good enough ..... need more ...... none of this parts-per-million trash, not even parts-per-billion, I'm going for parts-per-trillion (1e-12)!

Cesium Standards:

FTS-4065A
What?! only one??  That'll never do!

Rubidium Standards:

 Efratom FRT, Efratom FRK (2), Datum LPRO (3), Datum SLCR, Symmetricom X72 (2), FEI FE-5680A, Stanford Research PRS10, Symmetricom SA.22c (2)

and as bookends for largest and smallest, two dead units:  Tracor 304-B, a 3U rackmount beast, and a Symmetricom SA.35m, so tiny, so cute at 50mm x 50mm x 20mm.  I've got OCXOs that are many times larger!

GPSDOs:

Trimble Thunderbolt, HP Z3801A, HP Z3817A, HP Z3811/Z3812A, Jackson Labs GPSTCXO, Spectracom 8195B, Trimble UCCM, NEC NWM-034241-201, plus a ridiculous number of GPS receiver boards.

Quartz Oscillators:

...... Well, ........  No, No, we don't want to go there.

It's too late for me!  Save yourself!!     

Ed

P.S.  And there are many Time-Nuts that are much worse than me!  After all, I don't have *any* hydrogen masers!

[CJay]

P.S.  And there are many Time-Nuts that are much worse than me!  After all, I don't have *any* hydrogen masers!

Can you actually call yourself a time nut if you don't at least have ambitions? What would Tom Van Baak say?

[JPortici]

my used GWI multimeter arrived today, i made a couple of measurements but i am still not sure it's calibrated.
i need a calibrator now.

i need professional help, one way or the other

[Brumby]

Now what will I do when Dave's meter is finally ready?

Make space for it.

[edpalmer42]

P.S.  And there are many Time-Nuts that are much worse than me!  After all, I don't have *any* hydrogen masers!

Can you actually call yourself a time nut if you don't at least have ambitions? What would Tom Van Baak say?

I haven't been a Time-Nut long enough for the infection to reach that level.  I'd also have to move to a bigger place! 

[iainwhite]

I got tired of waiting for Dave's new DMM to be ready and I really wanted needed another quality handheld DMM, so I bought one of the $200 eBay new (old stock) Agilent U1252B's.   
It has arrived and I love it. It is a thing of beauty.  Oh man, my Brymen 257 and Fluke 87V are gonna have to share their bench space now. 
Now what will I do when Dave's meter is finally ready?

I did the same with the U1252B. 
I am going to buy Dave's 121GW meter too. I even told my wife I would, and she was OK with it.

[Berni]

I haven't been a Time-Nut long enough for the infection to reach that level.  I'd also have to move to a bigger place! 

Well guess being a Time nut is not really much cheaper than being a Volt nut after all. But still putting in 10 MHz reference clock distribution in to my rack is not that bad right?

[edpalmer42]

I haven't been a Time-Nut long enough for the infection to reach that level.  I'd also have to move to a bigger place! 

Well guess being a Time nut is not really much cheaper than being a Volt nut after all. But still putting in 10 MHz reference clock distribution in to my rack is not that bad right?

   Danger, Will Robinson!!   

That's the first step on a very slippery slope.
Is it really 10 MHz?  How close to 10 MHz?  How do you know?  Are you sure?

 

Ed

[Conrad Hoffman]

My name is Conrad and I like knobs. And digits. The more knobs and digits in a row, the more I want it.

[bitseeker]

My name is Conrad and I like knobs. And digits. The more knobs and digits in a row, the more I want it.

Well, then you need one of these Buchla function generators. 

[xrunner]

Forgive me, I have sinned

Don't worry, your in good company. I just bought another DMM myself. Really, I just paid for it. It's an HP 3468B. I'll show you all when it arrives.

Why? Because - I didn't have one.

Because it's a cool meter.

Because it's HP (need I say more?)

Because, I wanted it.

Because -

I'M A TEST EQUIPMENT ADDICT! 

[bitseeker]

Don't worry, your in good company. I just bought another DMM myself. Really, I just paid for it. It's an HP 3468B. I'll show you all when it arrives.

Why? Because - I didn't have one.

What made you choose the 3468B vs. 3478A?

[xrunner]

What made you choose the 3468B vs. 3478A?

In this case nothing more than a fair price, I'll probably buy the 3478A too later - being a TEA and all. 

[Cubdriver]

I have a recently acquired 3450B on the bench.  I'm slowly picking my way through it with the aid of the manual, but haven't figured out what ails it thus far.  Something definitely does, that's for sure.

    

-Pat

[bitseeker]

What made you choose the 3468B vs. 3478A?

In this case nothing more than a fair price, I'll probably buy the 3478A too later - being a TEA and all. 

I kinda figured that might be the case. 

[TheSteve]

I received yet another DMM today. Sadly I think I will need to sell one, if I do can I still be part of this group?

[Cubdriver]

I received yet another DMM today. Sadly I think I will need to sell one, if I do can I still be part of this group?

No!     Selling stuff will get you ostracized!   

-Pat

[mtdoc]

I received yet another DMM today. Sadly I think I will need to sell one, if I do can I still be part of this group?

No!     Selling stuff will get you ostracized!   

-Pat

Selling is allowed as long as it is done in order to fund another purchase AND as long as the other purchase is done first - then you sell .... maybe....

[mmagin]

there are no nice boatanchor signal generators.

HP 8642B is very well boatanchory with 36kg weight. May 3U height not delude you. 

If we're talking boatanchory but modern signal generators, clearly the 8662A is the one to get. http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1981-02.pdf   

It was some groundbreaking specs for its time, I think you can maybe do better for close in phase noise today, but it will be very expensive.

I just have a modern, Agilent-badged 8644B as my only RF signal generator.  Pretty darned good specs and cost me only about the same as my vastly inferior 8648B had (which is sitting around with a broken power supply for which replacements seem to go for $300 used on eBay.  I should take a look at it again sometime, but I think I found an open transformer winding, and it was a switching supply made by a third party for which no schematic was available.)

[tautech]

My name is Conrad and I like knobs. And digits. The more knobs and digits in a row, the more I want it.

Well, then you need one of these Buchla function generators. 

Holy hell. 
And a Uni degree to know how to operate it. 

[Berni]

Well, then you need one of these Buchla function generators. 

Holy hell. 
And a Uni degree to know how to operate it. 

More knobs than you can shake a stick at alright. But from the looks of it it seams like it works like one of those drum machine sequencers where it just loops around all the time. If it can interpolate between them this would make a sweet reflow oven profile controller.

If we're talking boatanchory but modern signal generators, clearly the 8662A is the one to get. http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/pdfs/IssuePDFs/1981-02.pdf   

It was some groundbreaking specs for its time, I think you can maybe do better for close in phase noise today, but it will be very expensive.

I just have a modern, Agilent-badged 8644B as my only RF signal generator.  Pretty darned good specs and cost me only about the same as my vastly inferior 8648B had (which is sitting around with a broken power supply for which replacements seem to go for $300 used on eBay.  I should take a look at it again sometime, but I think I found an open transformer winding, and it was a switching supply made by a third party for which no schematic was available.)

I also probably should not buy another RF synthesizer, I got 2 already. Tho none of them has a HP badge on it....no no rack is full.

[Cubdriver]

Berni, if the rack is full, that's a strong indication that you need another rack, too.   

-Pat