Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

mnem
Just because it STILL makes me chuckle whenever I see it. 

[tonyalbus]

.... and the 4" screen version.

for the NanoVNA i was late, so i could indeed have the 4" , when that arrived .......The V2 came  (even having the 4" i was too soon and am old already)
now i could not wait and wanted it, just to try... and a 4" will come and a 4"' V2 will come ... it is was it is..
i will be stuck with this small V1... but i did play with it and will then not need the others to come.
one of each is fine with this type of toys..........
oh..wait..     

[mnementh]

I figure by the time the 4" NanoVNA V2 ships, there'll be full-featured SA firmware available and I'll only "need" to buy it once. 

mnem

[bd139]

But you need the tinySA to fix the NanoVNA when you blow it up and the NanoVNA to test the tinySA when you blow it up 

Edit: got to be honest the screen size on these doesn't bother me but the crapness of the touch screen does. Firstly it's not designed to be oriented that way but vertically which causes it to look funny. Secondly it's a resistive touch screen which is just horrible. But at the price I'm gonna shut up now and use it 

[tonyalbus]

But you need the tinySA to fix the NanoVNA when you blow it up and the NanoVNA to test the tinySA when you blow it up 

Edit: got to be honest the screen size on these doesn't bother me but the crapness of the touch screen does. Firstly it's not designed to be oriented that way but vertically which causes it to look funny. Secondly it's a resistive touch screen which is just horrible. But at the price I'm gonna shut up now and use it 

WHEN  not even IF 

yes hope its not crap... will let you guys know!

[bd139]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

[tonyalbus]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

Agreed second hand SA with TG are crazy prizes..... then when i win the lottery.. i buy new a Siglent 3021 / 3032 for 75% of the price of a secondhand HP/keysight, its silly

[AVGresponding]

These light bulbs are the light source for projecting the digits to front. Wow! 

Fran at Franlab did a video on the IEE Readout display:

https://youtu.be/0TD_MhPpZKg

That thing's likely to be a better room heater than an old all-valve scope!

Fran's repair of the full alpha-numeric display was very interesting. The Swiss watch of display technology.

The seller hasn't accepted yet, and I'll not be surprised if they come up with some excuse to void the auction. If they accept my paypal payment, I'm the new d'Oh-ner of a Keithley 2000, price £256 shipped (no I can't afford it).   

New at Farnell they are £837, so not a bad price if you get it and its fixable at a good price 

Not to fan the flames or nuttin',  but there's a few on fleaBay right now from vendor BestTestUS supposedly tested good for $399, altho the VFDs do appear a tad dim in photos: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=keithley+2000&_sop=15

mnem
 

The seller still hasn't accepted the paypal payment yet...

[bd139]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

Agreed second hand SA with TG are crazy prizes..... then when i win the lottery.. i buy new a Siglent 3021 / 3032 for 75% of the price of a secondhand HP/keysight, its silly

Yeah. The Rigol DSA815-TG is "reasonably" (hahaha) priced at £1140 here new and I've seen them go for £750 on ebay. Annoyingly there was one that was sold as a buy it now for £400 last year which I missed. I really hated myself for missing that.

Go back 10 years ago and the HP 8500 series with TG were flying out for £300 a go. No longer

[tonyalbus]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

Agreed second hand SA with TG are crazy prizes..... then when i win the lottery.. i buy new a Siglent 3021 / 3032 for 75% of the price of a secondhand HP/keysight, its silly

Yeah. The Rigol DSA815-TG is "reasonably" (hahaha) priced at £1140 here new and I've seen them go for £750 on ebay. Annoyingly there was one that was sold as a buy it now for £400 last year which I missed. I really hated myself for missing that.

Go back 10 years ago and the HP 8500 series with TG were flying out for £300 a go. No longer

Have seen compairs between DSA815-TG and Siglent SSA3021 and the siglent seems worth the extra 300,- ...but then...it all starts to be less reasonable prices... yes lottery then 

[tonyalbus]

It is btw possible to buy a 2Ghz SA in Poland on Ebay for 240,- and get a free part-unit 
i did needed to buy a 10,- Noise source

[Edit] typo

[bd139]

You can make your own shitty noise source for about $1

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg1856271/#msg1856271

Edit: I should go find that in the cupboard and try it with my new SA.

Edit 2: meant to mention that the E3630A seller sent me a shipping label. Boo hiss 

[tonyalbus]

Cool 

[McBryce]

Interesting: https://www.tinysa.org/wiki/

Too bad it's another tiny touchscreen I can't see anymore. Yes, I know it can be connected to a PC; so can the NanoVNA or my Hantek 6022BL. Which is now stashed away in its case in the back of a drawer, probably never to see the light of day again until I Goodwill or eBay it. 

Well... there IS a chance it will get used as a LA... whatevs.  Point is... why do they always design around the absolute cheapest POS postage-stamp-sized screen, which usually comes with some weird implementation of whatever interface it uses and/or weird configuration of software libraries,  when 4" and even larger are SO damned cheap...? 

FFS, design around a screen so the interface & libraries support the broadest range of screens/digitizers so people can buy the screen they need and just plug it in, dammit. 

mnem
 

If they used a bigger screen, they couldn't call it Tiny/Nano or whatever. Looks like they've got a marketing department

McBryce.

[bd139]

Could call it super-mega-VNA 

[Robert763]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

Agreed second hand SA with TG are crazy prizes..... then when i win the lottery.. i buy new a Siglent 3021 / 3032 for 75% of the price of a secondhand HP/keysight, its silly

There is a R&S CRTU-RU on ebay UK at the moment for £750. That's a 2.7GHz SA with 50W input rating (200W peak) AND a Signal Generator AND a uW  to 50W power meter  (wide or narrowband). With a PC and free R&S software (FreRes) you get tracking generator / scalar network analyser (with offset frequencies) functionality. It covers the 2.4GHz band which a Siglent 3021 does not. A SSA3032 is twice as much. Neither have a proper signal generator.
(connection to seller  )

[tggzzz]

You can make your own shitty noise source for about $1

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg1856271/#msg1856271

Edit: I should go find that in the cupboard and try it with my new SA.

~4GHz ones are available on fleabay.

Pitfalls:

• DC cnmponent stuffed into a SA input will be unkind
• watch the total power output, which is what the SA mixer cares about; the power at the frequency of interest will be much lower, of course
• any nonlinearity will result in intermod products being inconveniently splattered just where you are looking

[bd139]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

Agreed second hand SA with TG are crazy prizes..... then when i win the lottery.. i buy new a Siglent 3021 / 3032 for 75% of the price of a secondhand HP/keysight, its silly

There is a R&S CRTU-RU on ebay UK at the moment for £750. That's a 2.7GHz SA with 50W input rating (200W peak) AND a Signal Generator AND a uW  to 50W power meter  (wide or narrowband). With a PC and free R&S software (FreRes) you get tracking generator / scalar network analyser (with offset frequencies) functionality. It covers the 2.4GHz band which a Siglent 3021 does not. A SSA3032 is twice as much. Neither have a proper signal generator.
(connection to seller  )

* bd139 lists a kidney 

[tggzzz]

Talking of spectrum analysers, there are lots of Agilent E4402B 100Hz-3GHz and HP 8560E 30Hz-2.9GHz (and other things) are in the Ramco auction https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/timed/ramco/catalogue-id-ramco-10236

[med6753]

<--------Only recently ventured into the world of HP.

<--------Is perfectly happy working in "MHz". Has nothing requiring "GHz".

<--------Should he get an SA to be part of the cool crowd or should he remain a dork?

<--------Decisions, decisions. 

[BU508A]

<--------Should he get an SA to be part of the cool crowd or should he remain a dork?

Depends. Do you live in a tower?

 

[Wolfgang]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

The most important feature of an SA is the 30dB power attenuator screwed in permanently at the input. 

[med6753]

<--------Should he get an SA to be part of the cool crowd or should he remain a dork?

Depends. Do you live in a tower?

 

Well, my apartment (flat) is on the 2nd floor. Perhaps so. 

Hey, I do have 6.5 digits (Fluke 8505A) but no need for it. 

[mnementh]

<--------Should he get an SA to be part of the cool crowd or should he remain a dork?

Depends. Do you live in a tower?

 

My takeaway from that page:   

Good advice for life, actually. 

mnem

[bd139]

Definitely a when here. Spectrum analysers are notoriously fragile. I'm sure I will blow mine up when I get it. One of the attractions of this particular one is that if you do blow it up then it doesn't mean crying like a baby for several days 

I'm still on the market for a half decent HP one, preferably with tracking gen or at least with LO out, but the entire supply seems to have dried up at the moment or has gone "stupid price".

The most important feature of an SA is the 30dB power attenuator screwed in permanently at the input. 

And the DC block