Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Out of curiosity does anybody have a reason for 6.5 digit multimeters costing so much?
5.5 digit used fluke is a 100 bucks or under
6.5 digit used fluke is a 1000 bucks or over
8.5 digit used fluke, the only one on ebay is used and is 16 grand!!
Is there a reason for such madness?

Maybe I was lucky and/or patient. Datron 1061 for £30 delivered, Solartron 7081 for <£100, but I've had to fettle with them and they aren't calibrated. The latter, or my £11 Trancell voltage source, read 35ppm off 10V.

Have you seen the price of a calibration, let alone an adjustment?

[neo]

Fair enough, though a multimeter at 16000 still strikes me as insane. We need a time machine to either go back to when this stuff was cheap or forward to when it will be cheap...

8.5-digit multimeters aren't easy to make or there'd be lots of them. Going back probably wouldn't help since in the old days, things we take for granted were expensive back then. Perhaps going forward yields potential for picking up today's expensive kit for less. However, if you couldn't come back, then you might want the then-available-but-too-expensive 10.5-digit multimeters.

GAS and DBA transcend space and time.

If we went back 15 years, nixie kit would be slightly cheaper on ebay, and if we were to go forward by the same amount modern kit should in theory be rendered cheaper as well. In theory, of course you have a point, we would then want the newest 10.5 digit multimeters so we could compulsively start going forward in time until we became completely lost,  then there is the problem of only organic matter being transferable through wormholes so the future would probably be off limits unless you were to hide it and wait. Same goes for the past only in the past you can hide it and then when you come back it is instantly available.
Of course there is also causality to contend with, if you were to start buying nixies back in 2000 then you may well spark the nixie fashion trend many years too soon and render them extinct.
Also as a side note, causality still comes into play with the future because how could one go forward to THE future when there isn't just one future? Every choice made now has a butterfly effect so the future you went to and hid test equipment in would have no guarantee of being the future you would get. Therefore any test equipment you hid probably wouldn't be there when you came back for it all those many years down the line.
I have put alot of thought into time travel does it show?

[bitseeker]

Yes, that's more than I dared to quote or it might disrupt the space-time continuum.

[neo]

Yes, that's more than I dared to quote or it might disrupt the space-time continuum.

There is only one solution, an infinite probability drive. Of course we may all become a sofa if we used that, but what little cost that is to pay for nixie tubes!

[neo]

A fluke 8800A that i just won on bidding, cheap too at only $40 half of that for shipping.

You won it!  Sweet!   

Congrats!  Sounds like you got a good deal on it, too.  Glad to hear, and look forward to seeing some Fluke 8800A pron once you receive it.

-Pat

Well for once 3 multimeters got into a room and two of them agreed, the 5.5 digit insisted it was .00003 lower than the other 2 said. It should be noted that my Instek GDM-8034 is in calibration, so therefore all my other meters are as well because they all are congruent.
Only two gripes and they are both very minor, the handle broke in shipping and it is missing a rubber foot.
Also, the quote is from another thread but was relevant.

Edit to add picture and addendum.
As i said, all accurate to the instek, which is in cal, and all are dead on to it give or take .003 volts and to entirely objective this measuring the output of a power supply that isn't particularly stable in the thousandths of a volt.

[Cubdriver]

Well, if you round up they all agree!!

-Pat

[neo]

Well, if you round up they all agree!!

-Pat

I wonder, do you think i broke the world by getting 3 multimeters congruent?

[Cubdriver]

Well, if you round up they all agree!!

-Pat

I wonder, do you think i broke the world by getting 3 multimeters that congruent?

Probably not - I haven't felt any noticeable rotational shifts.  Get another and try for four!!!   

-Pat

<edit to add - I hadn't yet seen the pic with the five of them in it!>

[neo]

Well, if you round up they all agree!!

-Pat

I wonder, do you think i broke the world by getting 3 multimeters that congruent?

Probably not - I haven't felt any noticeable rotational shifts.  Get another and try for four!!!   

-Pat

<edit to add - I hadn't yet seen the pic with the five of them in it!>

  The really funny bit is if i sit there and watch them they will agree shortly, just not long enough to get a picture in. Not only are there 5 in the second picture but those 5 are all the multimeters i own.

[VK5RC]

There is a name for trying to get those digits all to agree - volt-nuttery!

[neo]

There is a name for trying to get those digits all to agree - volt-nuttery!

  i DEFINITELY have that! As well as a pretty collection of meters, all (excluding instek) will tend to agree it is the insteak that just has to be .3% different.

[tggzzz]

I wonder, do you think i broke the world by getting 3 multimeters congruent?

No, it doesn't mean that.
But it does mean you need multimeters with more digits.

[Fungus]

I wonder, do you think i broke the world by getting 3 multimeters congruent?

it does mean you need more digits on the multimeters.

This.

If your meters are in agreement it's only because you don't have enough digits.

[neo]

I wonder, do you think i broke the world by getting 3 multimeters congruent?

No, it doesn't mean that.
But it does mean you need multimeters with more digits.

Well i can't afford a 6.5 or 7.5 and i certainly cannot afford an 8.5 so by all means feel free to give them to me. I'll give excellent pictures of them in exchange.

[Zucca]

DO LOOP

{
My brain:"that´s so cheap, not sure where to use it right now, but it is soo cheap. You never know what the future looks like."
My hand just clicks on "Buy now".

Two years later...

My brain: "What is this box here?"
My hands open the box.
My brain: "Ahhh, it was so cheap... not sure how much I paid for that.. mmm Let's sell it on the EEVBLOG"
}

END LOOP

[neo]

A fluke 8800A that i just won on bidding, cheap too at only $40 half of that for shipping.

You won it!  Sweet!   

Congrats!  Sounds like you got a good deal on it, too.  Glad to hear, and look forward to seeing some Fluke 8800A pron once you receive it.

-Pat

Only two gripes and they are both very minor, the handle broke in shipping and it is missing a rubber foot.
Also, the quote is from another thread but was relevant.

The handle was fixed with super glue and the foot was replaced with duct tape.

[alm]

How do you replace a rubber foot with duct tape? Tape the meter to the shelf?

[neo]

How do you replace a rubber foot with duct tape? Tape the meter to the shelf?

Wad the duct tape up to size and then tape it on. When wadded enough to resemble a foot it becomes as rigid as rubber and thus makes it sit the way it is meant to and not wobble. It works quite well.

[bd139]

Duct tape feet. Too many Flukes. Nixie tubes. I think I need to join this thread

[neo]

Duct tape feet. Too many Flukes. Nixie tubes. I think I need to join this thread

Welcome to the hotel California, you can checkout anytime you like but you can never leave!

[bitseeker]

Duck-footed test equipment. Brilliant.

Welcome, bd139. I concur with your thinking.

[Vtile]

Hmmpf.. I have been looking a decent autotransformer for a long time. Always slips through my nose in auctions or the unit or seller itself is somehow dodgy. Well I did pull the tricker a few weeks ago and bought a new 3 amp IP00 unit and yesterday I finally got around to start to build a casing to it. Today I started to bolt the internals to it.

..And then I noticed a one dealer of addictive substances (TE) were selling 2.5kW autotransformer for less what I paid for this 700W unit. There were also nice laboratory potentiometers in 500W plus size, uh.. And one lady who doesn't know what she is selling is trying to get rid of nice looking Goertz (GOSSEN METRAWATT) Unigor 6e, I think I need a spare unit? 

[WastelandTek]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-5000-series-(1970-1990-era)-shenanigans/msg1273603/#msg1273603

this happened

[xrunner]

this happened

[bitseeker]

...and then you join this thread.