Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

Does anyone have an oscilloscope with a low/high pass filter feature that they actually use?

The 20MHz bandwidth limit is used when characterising and testing power supplies.
That's the only time I've ever used the bandwidth limit.

[Ice-Tea]

TEA Time.

Is it? In that case...

[Ice-Tea]

I get to rewire a unit for 240V, you guys get a picture.

[AVGresponding]

I get to rewire a unit for 240V, you guys get a picture.

HP 66-something-or-other?

[Ice-Tea]

6632B. Agilent though, nothing to do with HP. 

[AVGresponding]

The jacket and trousers may be different, but the underwear is the same colour.   

[Saskia]

used and brown ?

[tautech]

...
Actually that Siglent kinda meets my requirements too....might be tempted, in a few years once they sell the 200MHz version of this, for the same price.
I see they have improved the industrial design, out with the ugly chromed knobs. It now looks like... pretty much a Tek.
Still need some minor work on that column of oval push buttons on the right side of the screen, looks off.. too Agilent/Keysight like, in a bad way I mean...

I always read the 'ugly chromed knobs' as reminiscence to the HP equipment knobs of the 80s.
To my eye much better than the new swollen muffin forms. Those are chinese fisher price toy style.

I'm not a fan of the new ones either (SDS6000A) however in use they are just fine as was the IMO nicer knobs on 5000X and 2000X Plus and earlier 2000 models.
IMO the Multipurpose control is one of the most important to get right especially for the advanced user that might use it more often than the average guy. However UI advances do spread the input load around the front panel with touch, mouse, virtual keyboards and the Multipurpose control inputs all used.

One of the nice recent additions is use of a mouse scroll wheel inside menus and in numeric input fields which has apparently just been added to SDS5000X models in latest FW.

[Vince]

TEA time ?

No worries, look what I just got a minute ago ! 

I have just had enough time to give it a quick clean and test drive.

My old Philips sig gen that Tautech was shitting on, calling it old junk as always, now gets some help !

I just had to buy it. They cost around 500 Euros here usually but this one popped up on Leboncoin.fr at only 130 Euros.
A pic of the back, a pic of the front, super dark, blurry and not even power up, as you do.
The description of the ad amounted to only single short sentence : " I am relisting this because I got the price wrong the first time ".

Strange... at 130 you still have the price wrong my dear, but well.

So, looked as fishy scammy as it gets.

Was not gonna fall for it, but just in case, I asked him to make me better pics, with the unit powered up, connected to the scope he was also selling (that his ad claimed was working), and to show me what the display looked like, so I can see if it was too dim, or uneven brightness or something.

I was fully expecting the guy to come up with excuses (" I don't know how to use it"), or simply not reply, and I would have given up on it with no regret.

BUT... much to my surprise, only on hour later he did do what I asked, see his pic below (first attachement).

He even did more than I asked : he took pics of both a sine wave output and a square wave. I didn't task for anything specific, just to see "some" output on the scope, so at least I know it can generate something, that the output  driver is not smoked or something.
Display looks as you can see, bright and even. Of course it was clear from his picture that the exposure of the camera was set low, so I fully expected the display to not be as bright in real life. But still, all parameters considered, it looked to me as if it would be decently bright none the less.

So, it didn't look as scammy as before... guy was not trying to hide a non working unit or dead display...

But, just in case I might be missing some important aspect, and might be scammed anyway and would regret it..... I low balled the guy, offering 105 Euros. Low balling a 130 price tag for something that sells for 500 usually, is insulting. So I was hoping he would insult me and I would get to keep my money. But.... go figure, he accepted my offer ! 

Still, I was fully prepared to either not receive anything, or receive something but then discover WHY it was so cheap...

But at that price, decent display and able to generate at least "some" signal, I thought I had nothing to lose as I could probably flog it on ebay and get my money back and yet some more.

So, I took the plunge....

Gave it a quick clean, opened it up to have a peek inside... didn't see anything suspicious. Everything was there, no sign of rework or damage, missing or loose screws, no blown caps.... I counted 7 big electrolytic caps, and 10 surface mount yellow tantalum.

Then put it back together and tried it out, trying to see what was wrong with it.

Problem : I didn't find anything wrong with it ?! 

Display is bright enough to be read easily even though it's very sunny here in the lab, next to the window with no curtain, so good enough for me.
Rotary encoder is not playing up, it's reliable.

I tried all wave forms, works fine. Sine wave is nice and clean and stable. Varying the frequency works fine, amplitude and DC offset as well. Can go up to the specified 15MHz just fine.

It works 

Only little things I noticed is the cooling fan that's not noisy per se, but it makes a slight rattling noise that's unpleasant.
Any recommendation brand/model on a quiet replacement ? Or anything will do ?!

Also, triangle and saw tooth wave forms appear to be limited to 100kHz ?! Weird, oh well...

The button marked "Single" is a bit yellowed, but not the others. I guess it was in some test rig in some company where the operator had to push that button all day long all year long 

So I am over the moon, can't believe I got one of these for only 105 Euros ! 

It's a tremendous update over my old analog Philips. Much better rise time, frequency and amplitude are much more stable, 15MHz vs 1Mhz, GPIB for automation. Extra wave forms like saw tooth. Does noise generation, and arbitrary wave forms. Digital controls to set the frequency in steps, that's convenient for testing stuff and plot frequency responses. The ability to vary the frequency from super low up to the max 15MHz with NO interruption, no decade switch to fuck with, is also incredible, love it.

Time base most likely better too. At the back it says " Option 001 ". I assume it's the crappiest option but still better than the Philips for sure. Plenty good enough for what I do. PLUS, I really don't care anyway because it has an external 10MHz ref input so that's what I plan on using anyway, if I ever want great accuracy.

So that's it... was unexpected, was just pot luck, but here I am modernizing the lab !

See Tautech ? Now I don't want to hear you anymore saying I only buy old junk. I am a modern HP guy now. Less vacuum tubes and more CPU's.
Of course I am keeping the old Philips, love it, and was given by my dad, it's sentimental, my first sig gen. I will never part with it.


First attached pic is the one I asked the seller to do. Others are from me.

[Specmaster]

<snip>
So I am over the moon, can't believe I got one of these for only 105 Euros ! 

It's a tremendous update over my old analog Philips. Much better rise time, frequency and amplitude are much more stable, 15MHz vs 1Mhz, GPIB for automation. Extra wave forms like saw tooth. Does noise generation, and arbitrary wave forms. Digital controls to set the frequency in steps, that's convenient for testing stuff and plot frequency responses. The ability to vary the frequency from super low up to the max 15MHz with NO interruption, no decade switch to fuck with, is also incredible, love it.

Time base most likely better too. At the back it says " Option 001 ". I assume it's the crappiest option but still better than the Philips for sure. Plenty good enough for what I do. PLUS, I really don't care anyway because it has an external 10MHz ref input so that's what I plan on using anyway, if I ever want great accuracy.

So that's it... was unexpected, was just pot luck, but here I am modernizing the lab !

See Tautech ? Now I don't want to hear you anymore saying I only buy old junk. I am a modern HP guy now. Less vacuum tubes and more CPU's.
Of course I am keeping the old Philips, love it, and was given by my dad, it's sentimental, my first sig gen. I will never part with it.


First attached pic is the one I asked the seller to do. Others are from me.

Nice score, but maybe you should have made a low ball offer on the scope as well, what did you have to lose?

[AVGresponding]

TEA time ?

No worries, look what I just got a minute ago ! 

I low balled the guy, offering 105 Euros. Low balling a 130 price tag for something that sells for 500 usually, is insulting. So I was hoping he would insult me and I would get to keep my money. But.... go figure, he accepted my offer ! 

Here, have one of these



Option 001 is the high stability timebase.

[Robert763]

Yes keep the Philips.
Everyone should have an analog audio generator that can be manually swept without steps and at the rate you turn the knob, not the update rate of the digital controller.

[Vgkid]

TEA time ?

Nice score. People tend to hate on the 33120 based on their menu driven controls ,but once you get used to it , it is not bad at all.

[Vince]

TEA time ?

No worries, look what I just got a minute ago ! 

I low balled the guy, offering 105 Euros. Low balling a 130 price tag for something that sells for 500 usually, is insulting. So I was hoping he would insult me and I would get to keep my money. But.... go figure, he accepted my offer ! 

Here, have one of these



Option 001 is the high stability timebase.

Oh you're kidding me, really ?! 

Oh boy,  sometimes I get lucky I guess ! 

[Vince]

TEA time ?

Nice score. People tend to hate on the 33120 based on their menu driven controls ,but once you get used to it , it is not bad at all.

Didn't know about the hate, but well it's fine to me : every basic parameter is direct access, one quick touch : wave form, amplitude, DC offset, frequency... I don't see how it could be more convenient on a digital instrument this compact ?!  Not enough real estate to use dedicated encoders for all the parameters. It's a trade-off...

[AVGresponding]

I think it comes from the fact you need the GPIB to make the ARB function practical, as there is no integral screen to help edit them?

[Vince]

<snip>
So I am over the moon, can't believe I got one of these for only 105 Euros ! 

It's a tremendous update over my old analog Philips. Much better rise time, frequency and amplitude are much more stable, 15MHz vs 1Mhz, GPIB for automation. Extra wave forms like saw tooth. Does noise generation, and arbitrary wave forms. Digital controls to set the frequency in steps, that's convenient for testing stuff and plot frequency responses. The ability to vary the frequency from super low up to the max 15MHz with NO interruption, no decade switch to fuck with, is also incredible, love it.

Time base most likely better too. At the back it says " Option 001 ". I assume it's the crappiest option but still better than the Philips for sure. Plenty good enough for what I do. PLUS, I really don't care anyway because it has an external 10MHz ref input so that's what I plan on using anyway, if I ever want great accuracy.

So that's it... was unexpected, was just pot luck, but here I am modernizing the lab !

See Tautech ? Now I don't want to hear you anymore saying I only buy old junk. I am a modern HP guy now. Less vacuum tubes and more CPU's.
Of course I am keeping the old Philips, love it, and was given by my dad, it's sentimental, my first sig gen. I will never part with it.


First attached pic is the one I asked the seller to do. Others are from me.

Nice score, but maybe you should have made a low ball offer on the scope as well, what did you have to lose?

Zero money ! As cheap as 105 Euros was for that sig gen, I do not have any money. I now need to quickly fix and sell a couple scopes that have been waiting on the shelves for months, to pay for the sig gen.

The scope vaguely tempted me, still for sale BTW been sold now it appears :

https://www.leboncoin.fr/bricolage/2150494690.htm

It's a "Megazoom" version which Dragon is all excited about and am now kinda curious about... and it costs only 50 Euros.

But... it's an Agilent rebrand / facelift. I absolutely despise this industrial design. Looks so cheap and ugly, I absolutely refuse to own these things. It's only 60MHz. It's heavily yellowed. There is a missing button below the CRT.

I DO want an old Megazoom, but a proper HP one, I love those, but also at least 100MHz, not yellowed and no broken/missing knobs.

Buying it to flip it wouldn't have worked either, because I can't afford to buy / spend now, and wait for 6 months to get my money back.
Plus given all I said above, this scope would be very difficult to resell, here anyway... and if it does sell it would be for the same price I paid for it, tops.

This scope makes no sense either for me to use, or to buy to flip. I try now try to be less impulsive and more reasonable, because of lack of space and money.

[Vince]

I think it comes from the fact you need the GPIB to make the ARB function practical, as there is no integral screen to help edit them?

Ah OK... well no worries then, as I only bought it as a souped up basic sig gen. I didn't buy it for its arb gen capabilities. Whatever it's capable of in this regard, is just bonus / extra points in my case, so I will be happy with what ever it can do.  Will play with that once I have computerized the lab and my vintage GPIB station is back up and running again.

[dl6lr]

I think that's unfair.. tranny is just a short because native English speakers find it easier / quicker to write/type than tran - sis - tor or trans - for - mer or trans - mi -ssion or whatever else it might stand for.
Just like people say "pot" instead of "potentiometer".

In this logic, the short form would be potty.

SCNR

And if it's portable: porta potti

[capt bullshot]

TEA time ?

No worries, look what I just got a minute ago ! 

Congrats!

The 33120A was the first all digital function generator I had (@work back in the days) - I was really impressed.
Does still a good job today, and your price tag is really good. (or lets better say realistic IMHO, they're usually overpriced in comparison to what you get from an el cheapo chinese one today).

[mnementh]

TEA Time.

Is it? In that case...   

Welcome to Probulator Club! 

mnem
Would you like flies widdat...?

[mnementh]

TEA time ?   

130 bux and the VFD isn't completely worn out...? 

I think that's worthy, even without the High-stability timebase. I'd certainly have jumped on it.

mnem
 

[Vince]

Dragon, I need a bigger cookie : 130 was ASKING price, but I low balled it at 105 and it got accepted !

[mnementh]

It's a "Megazoom" version which Dragon is all excited about and am now kinda curious about... and it costs only 50 Euros.

But... it's an Agilent rebrand / facelift. I absolutely despise this industrial design. Looks so cheap and ugly, I absolutely refuse to own these things. It's only 60MHz. It's heavily yellowed. There is a missing button below the CRT.

I DO want an old Megazoom, but a proper HP one, I love those, but also at least 100MHz, not yellowed and no broken/missing knobs.

You passed on a Mixed-signal 4MB MegaZoom scope for only 50 clams because it was KeySight (meaning newer) and "only" 60MHz...?




Jeebus... as much as I love my 2465 Army, that's a more useful scope any day, and it should be your daily driver.

I'd take the cookie back, but now it's got frog cooties all over it...

mnem
reading that caused me physical pain... 

[Vince]

TEA time ?

No worries, look what I just got a minute ago ! 

Congrats!

The 33120A was the first all digital function generator I had (@work back in the days) - I was really impressed.
Does still a good job today, and your price tag is really good. (or lets better say realistic IMHO, they're usually overpriced in comparison to what you get from an el cheapo chinese one today).

Yes old TE is way overprice IMO too, but that's the world we live in. 100 Euros here these days get's you only the random junk, not anything decent like this HP.

Hopefully with the Chinese stuff going strong these days, and the new generation loving it, hopefully the price of the old(er) good stuff will eventually get cheaper and cheaper ? Time will tell !