Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

I am about to build a few decade boxes as well (and got those cheap decimal and BCD thumbwheels on order, 150mOhms, KM2), which is why i am interested in these posts. I second that the result will be some test equipment. Manufacturer: oneself, precision: if you can afford it. :-) But i´ve got no problem to have it split into another thread if a moderator sees fit.

Putting it in a separate thread with a suitably descriptive title would mean that more people notice it and may help you. Plus in the future it may help other people with the same interest.

Contrarywise, if you put it here then those that aren't TEA/GAS addicted (the majority) will probably not even be aware of its existence. And even if it contained pearls of wisdom that would prevent people going down blind alleys, they wouldn't think of looking in it in a thread to "help" test equipment addicts.

Remember: if you can't search for or find something, it might as well not exist.

(And there's no need to get a moderator involved: they have too many things to do without bothering about the things that we can and should do on our own!)

[Specmaster]

I am about to build a few decade boxes as well (and got those cheap decimal and BCD thumbwheels on order, 150mOhms, KM2), which is why i am interested in these posts. I second that the result will be some test equipment. Manufacturer: oneself, precision: if you can afford it. :-) But i´ve got no problem to have it split into another thread if a moderator sees fit.

Putting it in a separate thread with a suitably descriptive title would mean that more people notice it and may help you. Plus in the future it may help other people with the same interest.

Contrarywise, if you put it here then those that aren't TEA/GAS addicted (the majority) will probably not even be aware of its existence. And even if it contained pearls of wisdom that would prevent people going down blind alleys, they wouldn't think of looking in it in a thread to "help" test equipment addicts.

Remember: if you can't search for or find something, it might as well not exist.

(And there's no need to get a moderator involved: they have too many things to do without bothering about the things that we can and should do on our own!)

I have no problem in moving it, but I never intended it become a topic in its own right just a quick chuck in question was all it was meant to be as I had the switch wrongly supplied and it was mentioned that a bcd switch would be suitable for capacitance decade box if I can be bothered to make it. I'm making a resistance one as a test unit for calibration purposes.

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[tggzzz]

I have no problem in moving it, but I never intended it become a topic in its own right just a quick chuck in question was all it was meant to be as I had the switch wrongly supplied and it was mentioned that a bcd switch would be suitable for capacitance decade box if I can be bothered to make it. I'm making a resistance one as a test unit for calibration purposes.

We are in danger of making a mountain out of a molehill! I think we've said all that is to be said on this topic.

Back to TEA, GAS, etc

[Cubdriver]

We are in danger of making a mountain out of a molehill! I think we've said all that is to be said on this topic.

Back to TEA, GAS, etc

Fair enough.  My heaviest ever (147 lbs) shipment of goodies from my left coast forays arrived early last week.  I've now added an old edge-lit NLS meter, a Dana nixie meter, a Kepco power supply with nixie readout, a little Tektronix/Sony 323 mini scope and an HP 3310A function generator to my evaluation/repair queue.

We back on track now?   

-Pat

[bd139]

3310A FTW. Always wanted one of them.

[bitseeker]

Yep, just about back on track. The only thing missing are the pics of the Nixies!

I'm also curious about the distortion of the 3310A when its turn comes up on your bench.

[bd139]

I think they are clamped triangle waves in them so I wouldn’t expect wonderful distortion characteristics. The big ass full width oscillators on the other hand are pretty good like the 651B as they are bridge based rather than integrated.

[Cubdriver]

I'll get some pics up later.  Since the 3310A is small, I can balance it on the pile and get some preliminary readings, assuming that it puts something out (IIRC it did, but it'd been sitting on my 'stash' shelf in the office out there for at least six months waiting for space in a box heading home, so I'm not 100% certain).

-Pat

[neo]

Do you suppose a query into the competency of fed-ex would drive us back on track?

Worth a try i guess..

We, 2:22AM: In transit, Snowville, UT.
We, 2:22PM; In transit, Sidney, NE.
Th, 2:22PM; In transit, Kansas City, MO.
Fr, 2:22AM; In transit, Kansas City, MO.     
Fr, 2:22PM; In transit, Kansas City, MO.

Kansas City is more than a few dozen miles from me and its scheduled to be delivered today, instead of something useful it seems as if the driver is quite literally circling Kansas City, MO.

[Specmaster]

Has anyone found anything remotely of interest in the Black Friday sales, I have to say that so far I've been disappointed with what I've seen.

Has anyone ever heard of test gear made by a company called PeakTech at all? Its a name that was brought in discussion today and I have never heard of them but I'm assured that they are considered big in test equipment in Europe?

[URI]

As far as I know PeakTech started as a brand name and later the company was named after it.
If you look at their products (PeakTech) you'll find a lot of products that look familiar to me and remind me of far eastern products often sold under other brand names..

It's really not a company like HP/Agilent/Keysight, Tektronix, Fluke or Keithley but more like BK Precision..

For me they seem to be putting their name on products they buy far east or that are manufactured there according to their demands. I've never heard of PeakTech as a well-known developing company in the field of test equipment. Their quality seems to be not to bad for the price as they claim a "fair price-performance ratio" for their products.

Personally there's nothing in their product portfolio that I'd dream of like classic Fluke/Tektronix/Keithley/HP Test Gear..

Just look at the specs (if there are any -haven't checked) and compare. 

[Specmaster]

If anyone is wondering about the capacitance decade boxes, I have started a thread here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/capacitance-decade-boxes/msg1358072/#msg1358072 as it was pointed out by tggzzz that this topic might well of interest to a wider group than just fellow and GAS and TEA members. so you can follow along on the new link please and let this section get back to its core subjects. 

[bd139]

Has anyone found anything remotely of interest in the Black Friday sales, I have to say that so far I've been disappointed with what I've seen.

Has anyone ever heard of test gear made by a company called PeakTech at all? Its a name that was brought in discussion today and I have never heard of them but I'm assured that they are considered big in test equipment in Europe?

CPC are selling off a lot of Vishay capacitors at ridiculous prices at the moment. Now's the time to recap anything with axial caps in it! 

[Specmaster]

As far as I know PeakTech started as a brand name and later the company was named after it.
If you look at their products (PeakTech) you'll find a lot of products that look familiar to me and remind me of far eastern products often sold under other brand names..

It's really not a company like HP/Agilent/Keysight, Tektronix, Fluke or Keithley but more like BK Precision..

For me they seem to be putting their name on products they buy far east or that are manufactured there according to their demands. I've never heard of PeakTech as a well-known developing company in the field of test equipment. Their quality seems to be not to bad for the price as they claim a "fair price-performance ratio" for their products.

Personally there's nothing in their product portfolio that I'd dream of like classic Fluke/Tektronix/Keithley/HP Test Gear..

Just look at the specs (if there are any -haven't checked) and compare. 

Thats pretty much what I thought or else I'm sure I would have heard of them before now and there is one of their bench meters on ebay UK and while it looks reasonable apart from its failing display, it sports a transistor test socket on the front panel and no serious meter I know of sports one of these.

[Specmaster]

Has anyone found anything remotely of interest in the Black Friday sales, I have to say that so far I've been disappointed with what I've seen.

Has anyone ever heard of test gear made by a company called PeakTech at all? Its a name that was brought in discussion today and I have never heard of them but I'm assured that they are considered big in test equipment in Europe?

CPC are selling off a lot of Vishay capacitors at ridiculous prices at the moment. Now's the time to recap anything with axial caps in it! 

Thanks for the tip, I think I'll take a peek at this then. I've nothing I can think of at the moment although I could recap the heathkit VTM and my Tech signal generator which has axials in them.

[HalFET]

I got the Keysight/Agilent Acqiris card to work! And glorious it was, now only to figure out a way to replace the fans with something bearable... Anyone from Keysight wandering around here who would happen to know if these things have over-heating protection?

[bitseeker]

Has anyone found anything remotely of interest in the Black Friday sales, I have to say that so far I've been disappointed with what I've seen.

Nope, haven't seen anything that made me click the Buy button. Snagging one of those U1732B LCR meters on eBay was much more compelling and it wasn't even Black Friday, yet. The meter just arrived today and the only disappointing things about it are the extremely uneven backlight and the pesky low battery indicator when using a NiMH battery (I'll use an AC adapter instead).

Has anyone ever heard of test gear made by a company called PeakTech at all? Its a name that was brought in discussion today and I have never heard of them but I'm assured that they are considered big in test equipment in Europe?

I've seen their stuff on occasion, but they do look like re-branded equipment. Nothing wrong with that if the gear fits your needs.

It's really not a company like HP/Agilent/Keysight, Tektronix, Fluke or Keithley but more like BK Precision..

Yeah, kind of like BK Precision, except the BK gear I've seen is way overpriced for what you get. I'm amazed by the premium their name brings in.

[Specmaster]

Has anyone found anything remotely of interest in the Black Friday sales, I have to say that so far I've been disappointed with what I've seen.

Nope, haven't seen anything that made me click the Buy button. Snagging one of those U1732B LCR meters on eBay was much more compelling and it wasn't even Black Friday, yet. The meter just arrived today and the only disappointing things about it are the extremely uneven backlight and the pesky low battery indicator when using a NiMH battery (I'll use an AC adapter instead).

Has anyone ever heard of test gear made by a company called PeakTech at all? Its a name that was brought in discussion today and I have never heard of them but I'm assured that they are considered big in test equipment in Europe?

I've seen their stuff on occasion, but they do look like re-branded equipment. Nothing wrong with that if the gear fits your needs.

It's really not a company like HP/Agilent/Keysight, Tektronix, Fluke or Keithley but more like BK Precision..

Yeah, kind of like BK Precision, except the BK gear I've seen is way overpriced for what you get. I'm amazed by the premium their name brings in.

Best bit is that the seller states the the screen is good and has no dead pixels, what about the missing digit segments then?

[bd139]

That might be the awful bleed through and scan rate on the LCD.

[Specmaster]

That might be the awful bleed through and scan rate on the LCD.

Does that make it look far worse on camera then? If so I might be tempted if the price is right, it has dual display capability [emoji6]

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[SparkyFX]

Has anyone found anything remotely of interest in the Black Friday sales, I have to say that so far I've been disappointed with what I've seen.

Picotech UK almost got me on 20% off of everything (offer til sunday), but the tax eats that up, so a national mail distributor has a better price for me in total and delivered (1964€ vs. 1840€).

Has anyone ever heard of test gear made by a company called PeakTech at all? Its a name that was brought in discussion today and I have never heard of them but I'm assured that they are considered big in test equipment in Europe?

Well i posted that a few posts up. It seems to be rebranded (built with customer ordered branding) import test gear, check this thread for a teardown and a photo of the same device branded as "Southwire", which in turn i never heard of. For benchtop devices they are 1:1 lookalikes with other import brands. It is not low quality, does not feel low quality, works quite well. They are big in the usual suspects catalogues since a few years. Doesn´t make it a Gossen Metrawatt either, but i only got a spare budget for the hobby and wanted a nice readable display, logging capability, pc interface and the magnetic hanger.

Which brings us back to the TEA... of course there are A brands and B brands. As long as there is no ripoff, the difference of the money is supposed to go into the local economy, with workplaces, taxes, education, trainees and all, which is probably not going to happen with the local sales department of imported gear. But i talk myself out of it, as 1200€ general purpose digital multimeters are simply not targeted for a hobbyist market and they didn´t reinvent the (10-50US$) ADCs in there, they hopefully just made the best out of what is provided by the semiconductor manufacturers. So yeah, you can not compare them by design, features and build alone and have to see the bigger picture, until you have a budget you need to make the best out of.

[Specmaster]

Well, I took bd139's advise and went on CPC website and ordered myself some axial caps to recap a couple of items I have in collection and saved 80% on them, good deal. I bagged a few other bits and bobs while I was there too, sweet.

On the decimal switch side, the second one I ordered arrived today, perfect for the job, apart from 1 bank will increment, it will not decrement so claim time again I feel.

[neo]

Great news, my 8400A is here and intact! It turns on without error just doesn't display anything other than range indicator or +-

Details here, https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fluke-8400a-no-display/

[Specmaster]

Update time, wired the switch bank and all works fine and dandy, just need to work on the enclosure for it now.

And its already claimed its first victim, my Fluke 8505A has been proven to be way out of calibration on the resistance range, seems to be fine and near enough in calibration all the way up to 4M and gives me a reading of 3.99694M. If I set the decade at 5M, Fluke reads 5.6173M, way off the mark and it get progressively worse to 9M dialed in it reads 10.1081M and if I dial all the settings in it reads 11.2317M.

I think from memory when I checked it out when it arrived that there where numerous pots I can tweak on the Ohms card but I should be able to correct it via the front panel, once I've read the manual through unless someone on here can talk me through the procedure .

Good news is that so far all my other meters are pretty much in agreement with each other so thats a pretty good sign. 

[neo]

I think this might confirm that i am, in fact, in the right place. I bought one 8400A to have, i got it with problems so i am now vying for a second to keep it company. 

I may also try an organ donation between the two if i get two.