Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

From experience most people who had those on benches where i momentarily worked left them on overnight. And their soldering irons 

Similarly, in many offices people go home and leave their computers and monitors running all night 

My first Fluke 8840A must also have been one that was left running 24/7 because the display was almost unreadable if exposed to reasonably bright light 

[bd139]

From experience most people who had those on benches where i momentarily worked left them on overnight. And their soldering irons 

Similarly, in many offices people go home and leave their computers and monitors running all night 

My first Fluke 8840A must also have been one that was left running 24/7 because the display was almost unreadable if exposed to reasonably bright light 

To be fair I do that with my Mac. Even when it’s idle but powered up it only uses 6 watts (!) and 0.5W when asleep.

As for the VFD based meters being left on that’s unforgivable.

[AVGresponding]

From experience most people who had those on benches where i momentarily worked left them on overnight. And their soldering irons 

Similarly, in many offices people go home and leave their computers and monitors running all night 

My first Fluke 8840A must also have been one that was left running 24/7 because the display was almost unreadable if exposed to reasonably bright light 

To be fair I do that with my Mac. Even when it’s idle but powered up it only uses 6 watts (!) and 0.5W when asleep.

As for the VFD based meters being left on that’s unforgivable.

The display yes, but it would be nice if the electronics could be left on. Depending on ambient, it can take my good VFD meters an hour to properly warm up.

[Specmaster]

From experience most people who had those on benches where i momentarily worked left them on overnight. And their soldering irons 

Similarly, in many offices people go home and leave their computers and monitors running all night 

My first Fluke 8840A must also have been one that was left running 24/7 because the display was almost unreadable if exposed to reasonably bright light 

To be fair I do that with my Mac. Even when it’s idle but powered up it only uses 6 watts (!) and 0.5W when asleep.

As for the VFD based meters being left on that’s unforgivable.

The display yes, but it would be nice if the electronics could be left on. Depending on ambient, it can take my good VFD meters an hour to properly warm up.

Yeah, but is it really required to warm them up, from my experience it might make the last digit more stable by 1 or 2 counts, what demands that level of accuracy anyway?

[tautech]

Med has the SDM3055 and now we have a secret user cal process for them.....if you have a suitable reference. 

My bad, I misremembered.

Do you know whether the factory calibration process is manual or automated? A person having a bit of brain fade would explain a lot.

It will be automated using a universal calibrator with a PC running a cal script but it's been reported SDM's drift a little until their references become suitably aged and stable so the user cal process has been developed for owners with decent references to make fine adjustments to accuracy.

Defpom tweaked his 3065X using one of IanJ's references that have been calibrated with a 8.5 digit DMM.
AFAIK it worked out just fine even though the adjustment process was still in the beta stages and Defpom provided some feedback to Siglent for them to polish it some.

[med6753]

Med has the SDM3055 and now we have a secret user cal process for them.....if you have a suitable reference. 

My bad, I misremembered.

Do you know whether the factory calibration process is manual or automated? A person having a bit of brain fade would explain a lot.

It will be automated using a universal calibrator with a PC running a cal script but it's been reported SDM's drift a little until their references become suitably aged and stable so the user cal process has been developed for owners with decent references to make fine adjustments to accuracy.

Defpom tweaked his 3065X using one of IanJ's references that have been calibrated with a 8.5 digit DMM.
AFAIK it worked out just fine even though the adjustment process was still in the beta stages and Defpom provided some feedback to Siglent for them to polish it some.

I'm interested. My 3055 does need a tweak.

Based upon what I'm seeing so far with the 3465A/8505A competition the hp seems to be more stable and accurate. I'll post the results in the morning.

[tautech]

Med has the SDM3055 and now we have a secret user cal process for them.....if you have a suitable reference. 

My bad, I misremembered.

Do you know whether the factory calibration process is manual or automated? A person having a bit of brain fade would explain a lot.

It will be automated using a universal calibrator with a PC running a cal script but it's been reported SDM's drift a little until their references become suitably aged and stable so the user cal process has been developed for owners with decent references to make fine adjustments to accuracy.

Defpom tweaked his 3065X using one of IanJ's references that have been calibrated with a 8.5 digit DMM.
AFAIK it worked out just fine even though the adjustment process was still in the beta stages and Defpom provided some feedback to Siglent for them to polish it some.

I'm interested. My 3055 does need a tweak.

Based upon what I'm seeing so far with the 3465A/8505A competition the hp seems to be more stable and accurate. I'll post the results in the morning.

Flick me an email Med you should still have it I guess.

You can calm the stability some in the 3055 by using its input filters or the Fast, Med, Slow read settings.

[Robert763]

From experience most people who had those on benches where i momentarily worked left them on overnight. And their soldering irons 

Similarly, in many offices people go home and leave their computers and monitors running all night 

My first Fluke 8840A must also have been one that was left running 24/7 because the display was almost unreadable if exposed to reasonably bright light 

My desktop PC at work has been on 24/7 for nearly a year. I've not been in the building and been using remote access since before the first lock down. It's had a couple of re-starts but that's all.

[BU508A]

BU058A.....can you explain in simple terms how to get the 3456A into 6.5 digit mode? Right now it's in 5.5 mode. I started reading the manual and so far it is very confusing. 

bd139 was faster than me, thanks.   

[vk6zgo]

I get the same monkey, but in English.

Me, too!

[BU508A]

They have only been on about an hour and so far looking damn good. 

Bench meters from these guys and this era are such high quality design and construction I'd expect nothing less.

What does your 3065 say..?   

Med has the SDM3055 and now we have a secret user cal process for them.....if you have a suitable reference. 

@med6753:
How about a DMMCheck Plus from Mr. Malone?
https://dmmcheckplus.com/

[Saskia]

F*ck.

Lenovo's supply chain apparently has broken down completely. 6 months lead time 
So, no new P15, however our "used stuff storage" still had a P53 in stock. They would have to special order the SSD and RAM upgrade and I would have to live with an RTX 3000. RAM and SSD should be no problem, and 64GB should be plenty for the forseeable future.

Told my boss that I would use my Tesla P100s for longer running calculations (i.e. if the RTX3k was not sufficient) and got the approval for the order.

But anyway. This should be a very decent notebook.

[mnementh]

You should build a 5000 series Ryzen Epyc box for the 3090... and manage it with the new laptop. 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-amd-epyc-rome-motherboard-seven-pcie-40-x16-expansion-slots

mnem
*juicy*

[srb1954]

They have only been on about an hour and so far looking damn good. 

Those DMMs look pretty unstable to me  - physically unstable that is!

[mnementh]

They suit the owner just fine. 

mnem
Enheavyment: TEA-speak and ironic term for enlightenment as quantified by curb weight of latest acquisition(s). Also, qualified as inverse function thereof.

[beanflying]

They suit the owner just fine. 

mnem
Enheavyment: TEA-speak and ironic term for enlightenment as quantified by curb weight of latest acquisition(s). Also, qualified as inverse function thereof.

I think now to get his fleet into proper trim this stack might be needed    eBay auction: #251769558969

[AVGresponding]

Med has the SDM3055 and now we have a secret user cal process for them.....if you have a suitable reference. 

My bad, I misremembered.

Do you know whether the factory calibration process is manual or automated? A person having a bit of brain fade would explain a lot.

It will be automated using a universal calibrator with a PC running a cal script but it's been reported SDM's drift a little until their references become suitably aged and stable so the user cal process has been developed for owners with decent references to make fine adjustments to accuracy.

Defpom tweaked his 3065X using one of IanJ's references that have been calibrated with a 8.5 digit DMM.
AFAIK it worked out just fine even though the adjustment process was still in the beta stages and Defpom provided some feedback to Siglent for them to polish it some.

I'm interested. My 3055 does need a tweak.

Based upon what I'm seeing so far with the 3465A/8505A competition the hp seems to be more stable and accurate. I'll post the results in the morning.

Flick me an email Med you should still have it I guess.

You can calm the stability some in the 3055 by using its input filters or the Fast, Med, Slow read settings.

Obviously he needs to use the "Med" setting...

[tautech]

I'm interested. My 3055 does need a tweak.

Based upon what I'm seeing so far with the 3465A/8505A competition the hp seems to be more stable and accurate. I'll post the results in the morning.

Flick me an email Med you should still have it I guess.

You can calm the stability some in the 3055 by using its input filters or the Fast, Med, Slow read settings.

Obviously he needs to use the "Med" setting...

So you might think but no, Slow as Med hasn't worked that out yet. 

[vk6zgo]

They suit the owner just fine. 

mnem
Enheavyment: TEA-speak and ironic term for enlightenment as quantified by curb weight of latest acquisition(s). Also, qualified as inverse function thereof.

This might contribute to that end:-
https://images.app.goo.gl/WZFeq8ergNiCncEL6

[Brumby]

They suit the owner just fine. 

mnem
Enheavyment: TEA-speak and ironic term for enlightenment as quantified by curb weight of latest acquisition(s). Also, qualified as inverse function thereof.

I think now to get his fleet into proper trim this stack might be needed    eBay auction: #251769558969

God for it!   You know you want to.   

[bd139]

F*ck.

Lenovo's supply chain apparently has broken down completely. 6 months lead time 
So, no new P15, however our "used stuff storage" still had a P53 in stock. They would have to special order the SSD and RAM upgrade and I would have to live with an RTX 3000. RAM and SSD should be no problem, and 64GB should be plenty for the forseeable future.

Told my boss that I would use my Tesla P100s for longer running calculations (i.e. if the RTX3k was not sufficient) and got the approval for the order.

But anyway. This should be a very decent notebook.

Same problem here. Stuck with the dell for months now 

[McBryce]

A luxury TEA question / advice sought: Today I spoke with my accountant and 2020 was financially a lot better than I thought, so I want to treat myself to something above my normal price limit (I usually buy defective devices and fix them, very rarely above €500). The Keithley 6500 has been on my "I want!" list since it came out and I now have the funds to afford it. But... I'm not sure. My main Desk DMM is a Keithley 2000, which I will never part with and is my most used device, but if you had the funds for a 6500 and wanted to buy a new DMM, would you choose the 6500 or would you buy a different DMM (and why)?

McBryce.

I'm not sure, if I would buy a DMM6500 if I'm having a Keithley 2000 and/or a 34401A. I'd go for the next step with 7 1/2 or, finally a 8 1/2 digit DMM (I'm still looking for an affordable 3458A).
But this depends also on what you want to do with it. For example, if you want to use it because of its fast sampling rate and the GUI which makes trends visible, go for it.

Welectron has an offer of around 1020 Euro for the DMM6500
https://www.welectron.com/Keithley-DMM6500-Tisch-Multimeter?utm_campaign=id


I'm having a DMM7510 and I love it.
Example:
Pictures of measurements of my resistor decade box:


Measuring trends on my LTFLU-1 10V prototype:


Measuring leakage current of some wet tantalum capacitors:



You'd love it to work with the DMM6500.   

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. 7.5 or 8.5 Meters are tempting, but don't really give me anything new that I would use. The features of the 6500 that interest me are the trending and data logging that it can do, especially that it can be viewed directly from the meter. The 7510 is on the wrong side of 4K and I couldn't justify an additional >3K for an extra digit (Steady down voltnuts! Just go along with me here).

As for the other suggestions: Source meter: Never really had a use for one. LCR Meter: I have a DER EE DE5000 that I'm very happy with. Motorbike: Haven't owned one since the 90's and I no longer have a license for one (and that's a good thing). My only other consideration would be a scope with a bigger screen (I currently use a Rigol MSO-1104Z), but I'd want something like an Agilent 4000 Series and these are also well outside the budget at the moment.

Thanks BU508A for the link, that's the cheapest I've seen it for so far. I should also mention, the Keithley 2000 wouldn't just be sitting on the desk being the second meter, I have 2 area that I work from and it would get moved to area 2 where I currently use a HP3478A which I would then sell.

McBryce.

Thanks again BU508A for the Welectron link. This morning I hit the big blue order button and there's now a brand new 6500 on its way to me
Anyone looking for a good condition HP3478A with a new battery?

McBryce.

[med6753]

Both the 3456A and 8505A have been on for approx 18 hours and I have some interesting results.

Test set-up. One of the AD584-M's powered by USB and powered continuously during the test. It was set to the indicated 9.99691V. That voltage is achieved at 25 C. I noticed during the Winter months that both my AD584-M's read lower due to ambient 21 C and take a while to warm up.

Results: Within approx 2 hours the 3456A stabilized and didn't vary all night. The 8505A did not fair well. It started out agreeing with the 3456A within one or two digits but as the test progressed it's measurement kept continuing to drift lower and lower and it wasn't until maybe 12 hours into the test that it stopped. The 3465A stabilized at 9.99693V to 95. The 8505A finally stopped drifting at 9.99676V to 78. In real world applications that doesn't mean a hill of beans. But to a volt-nut that's tragic. And if you compare it to the other three AD584-M voltages it begins to tell a story....


AD584-M         3456A            8505A

2.50066V          2.50061V       2.50062V

4.99794V          4.99792V       4.99790V

7.50011V          7.50012V       7.50000V

You can clearly see a pattern here. As the voltage increases the 8505A becomes more and more inaccurate.

And as further proof that something is amiss with the 8505A. Here is the other AD584-M
 
AD584-M         3456A             8505A

2.49937V          2.49938V       2.49938V 

5.00030V          5.00034V       5.00030V

7.50042V          7.50050V       7.50038V     

10.00096V       10.00108V      10.00094V

I don't have the ability to perform a full calibration on the 8505A and I don't think it's worth the effort and expense to send it to a cal lab. And unfortunately there are no cal labs within reasonable driving distance. But I suspect there's more going on here than just a calibration. The non-linear delta as the voltage increases is very suspicious. And in order to troubleshoot this DMM you need an extender board which is almost impossible to find. So my choices are sell this 8505A as a parts only unit or just quietly retire it and hope that one day an extender board shows up. I haven't decided what to do yet.

And as a side note. Speaking of the Siglent SDM 3055. I've decided that when the budget allows I'm going to sent it in for a full calibration rather than attempt to “tweak” it myself. And here it is measuring the same 9.99691V after it's been powered up for over 12 hours. I would expect at least a reading of 9.9968V or 69. And it's off at least that much on all the other references. 

[Specmaster]

F*ck.

Lenovo's supply chain apparently has broken down completely. 6 months lead time 
So, no new P15, however our "used stuff storage" still had a P53 in stock. They would have to special order the SSD and RAM upgrade and I would have to live with an RTX 3000. RAM and SSD should be no problem, and 64GB should be plenty for the forseeable future.

Told my boss that I would use my Tesla P100s for longer running calculations (i.e. if the RTX3k was not sufficient) and got the approval for the order.

But anyway. This should be a very decent notebook.

Same problem here. Stuck with the dell for months now 

Whats the problem here then, Covid or Brexit?

[tautech]

And as a side note. Speaking of the Siglent SDM 3055. I've decided that when the budget allows I'm going to sent it in for a full calibration rather than attempt to “tweak” it myself. And here it is measuring the same 9.99691V after it's been powered up for over 12 hours. I would expect at least a reading of 9.9968V or 69. And it's off at least that much on all the other references. 

It's not hard Med as you just access the range value and shift it a point or 2 then save it. If you write down the values you find you can always return it to where it was. I'll flick you the instructions to have a read of and have a look at how to access the DMM values and then make a decision if you're to undertake any tweaks.
Gimme a minute to dig the stuff out and stand by ! 

Sent !