Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

And here's what the other side looks like... 


mnem
 

Hmm, so once you detect it, you can amplify it.

[neo]

Good news about my 8000A not only are the batteries still good but it just randomly sprung to life. Works and is as accurate as ever, the only i thing i did was momentarily short two traces for a sec while testing. 

Also it makes a high pitched ringing noise, particularly loud under excessive load. HF adjust does nothing and this is like nails on a chalkboard when you have a dogs hearing. I'm not kidding i actually have hearing equatable to a dogs.

c17 and c18, which are electrolytic in the mains only version, are tantalum in this one. Can they be replaced with electrolytic?

[Berni]

The first of two 

The only question now is Lan or USB to gpib

USB to GPIB have usually been the cheapest way to get GPIB into a modern PC, they dumped a bunch of new Agilent ones on ebay some time ago.

But i eventualy also got a Agilent ethernet to GPIB box to get my rack of oldschool boatanchors online. The thing with these is that it has to be reasonably modern to work well on a typical home LAN. The old ones might have weird protocols or even use token ring and if you do cobble together some network gear to get it up you then won't be able to run the drivers for it on anything newer than win 98.

[beanflying]

Bit of a lucky dip with the counterfeits by the sounds of it.

Cheers for the driver advice I will look into it more before getting a LAN one. I do have an XP and even an ancient 98 box I could get going if needed but would rather not

[URI]

OK, but I just looked for the CFD..   
Perhaps it would have been easy to repair -would I have been using it for parts then? No.. 

Doubtful, In my experience, HP packed their 8000 series pulse/pattern/function generators (afaik mostly made by HP Germany in Böblingen) full of custom unobtainium  chips. Usually, the faster the generator, the more custom chips were used and the less reliable they are. Sure, sometimes you're lucky and it's only bad caps or a smoked output stage. But the chance of getting something with bad unobtainium is significantly higher with these units. I sold all of them.

You are right. This even includes the display. 
I had an eye on HP 8116A but because of the lack of an input for an external reference clock and also the mean age of the ones being offered I didn't through my money on one of those.
The 8110A is much younger so hopefully more lifetime left of it. 

Only HP pulse generator I keep is the HP 5359A. I've had bad experience with repairing HP 8082A, 8112A, 8116A, 8165A so far.

The HP 5359A.. ..interesting.. *checking**added to list*.
Oh, oh, is that really the therapy I was looking for in this thread?     

BTW, how does 8110A look from the inside?

I haven't made photos of the inside yet, but even though the fans are sounding like at the end of their lifetime it's very clean inside. Taking the burnt in CFD into account I assume it was used in a clean lab surrounding running permanently. Hopefully it had not too much stress being switched on/off too often.
I have a nearly fully equipped 8110A only missing the 81107A Multichannel Deskew board.
No performance tests yet but as far as I could test fully functioning.

BTW2: How about this as a source for displays, just found it, don't know wether it's legit:
http://www.tzsupplies.com/keysight-agilent-hp-boards-and-i3778484/

Nice point-to. Haven't come across that yet. On the other hand: As long as I haven't seen the CFD offered working I won't even think about throwing money in.

Perhaps the unobtaniumness of the 8110A's CFD is a good justification for acquiring a logic analyzer to re-engineer the CFD's interface and -if needed- build a converter for using todays standard displays, for example OLED ones...

[Specmaster]

Good stuff. Looks like a decent bit of kit. It has built in batteries (NiMh) and you can power it off USB if you want.

I’m interested in the TCXO, external ref input and USB myself. Will be good for measuring VFO drift over time without gmhaving to state at anything. Also my DG1022Z counter is total shit. I’m selling that entire unit when I see a function gen turn up cheap.

They have a TTi TGP110 (10MHz) for sale as well, any good to you? I was looking at for scope calibration, but it doesn't do as much as my Heathkit calibrator does so I've taken it off my list.

You're still going for a Keysight scope later then I take it?

Well maybe the ebay curse has been lifted or I just something I might regret, we'll find out but my offer on that tf930 was accepted so I'll be off to collect it later and then we'll know if I have a real bargain or not [emoji23]

[bd139]

Let me know if it’s a turd. I’ll have to wait a few days for mine

[Specmaster]

Let me know if it’s a turd. I’ll have to wait a few days for mine

So you got the other one then [emoji106]

[bd139]

They have loads - 25 or so left.

[neo]

The wallet said i have too many multi meters, i have no clue what shes talking about...

They all pretty much read 1.261

Exact list,
Fairchild 7050
Fluke 8050A
Fluke 8010A
Fluke 8000A
Keithely 179A
Fluke 8800A
Instek 8034
Fluke 8400A
and the analog one is Hickok 209A

Those are the working ones.

[Specmaster]

They have loads - 25 or so left.

Think again, they may have 1 x 930 and 2 x 830 left, unless you know they have some that have not been listed yet?

[bd139]

Says 25 available on eBay app on iOS.

[Specmaster]

Shiver me timbers, you're right but they do only have 2 of the 830's though 

[bd139]

How much did you offer on yours? I don’t bother with offers these days as I don’t think I’ve had a successful one

[Specmaster]

£30 first which was rejected so offered £35 and it was accepted.

[bd139]

Dammit could have saved myself 15 quid

[Specmaster]

Dammit could have saved myself 15 quid

What, I thought you always tried an offer first? I did say before that they would often look at an offer, got my HP3466A from them for half the asking price, always try it first these days. I tried that last night on a nice office chair but was rejected as someone paid the full price for their last one in stock so it doesn't always work out 

[bd139]

I haven’t had an accepted offer for about a year so I don’t bother usually.

Last thing I did win on was a chair actually. Aeron for £70!

[tautech]

Thats an analogue meter? So whats wrong with AVO's amd Simpsons, I thought that they were also rated meters?

Avos are very unreliable (it's difficult finding one that isn't wonky these days), have strange 15v batteries that don't exist.

So you've never thought of stacking some 3V LR44's and adding some copper or brass tubing and covering it all in shrink sleeve to make the same length as a 15V cell ? Really, I thought you'd be a bit more like Blackadder with a surprisingly cunning plan.   

[Specmaster]

Thats an analogue meter? So whats wrong with AVO's amd Simpsons, I thought that they were also rated meters?

Avos are very unreliable (it's difficult finding one that isn't wonky these days), have strange 15v batteries that don't exist.

So you've never thought of stacking some 3V LR44's and adding some copper or brass tubing and covering it all in shrink sleeve to make the same length as a 15V cell ? Really, I thought you'd be a bit more like Blackadder with a surprisingly cunning plan.   

When I won my AVO it came with a spare 15v battery. I have also seen them for sale somewhere recently too.

[Specmaster]

I found 7 sellers on Ebay all with replacement 15v batteries for AVO's in stock ranging from £3.95 to over £15 so no trouble getting batteries for them on line, I doubt if many local shops would bother stocking them though. AVO's are still very popular and plenty of them around.

[tautech]

Thats an analogue meter? So whats wrong with AVO's amd Simpsons, I thought that they were also rated meters?

Avos are very unreliable (it's difficult finding one that isn't wonky these days), have strange 15v batteries that don't exist.

So you've never thought of stacking some 3V LR44's and adding some copper or brass tubing and covering it all in shrink sleeve to make the same length as a 15V cell ? Really, I thought you'd be a bit more like Blackadder with a surprisingly cunning plan.   

When I won my AVO it came with a spare 15v battery. I have also seen them for sale somewhere recently too.

You've always been able to get 15V W10's or whatever they want to name them but why when a few LR44's will do the job. Shite loads cheaper too.

[Specmaster]

Thats an analogue meter? So whats wrong with AVO's amd Simpsons, I thought that they were also rated meters?

Avos are very unreliable (it's difficult finding one that isn't wonky these days), have strange 15v batteries that don't exist.

So you've never thought of stacking some 3V LR44's and adding some copper or brass tubing and covering it all in shrink sleeve to make the same length as a 15V cell ? Really, I thought you'd be a bit more like Blackadder with a surprisingly cunning plan.   

When I won my AVO it came with a spare 15v battery. I have also seen them for sale somewhere recently too.

You've always been able to get 15V W10's or whatever they want to name them but why when a few LR44's will do the job. Shite loads cheaper too.

The £3.95 ones on Ebay seem to be LR44's shrinkwrapped together with a spacer terminal on one end.

[tautech]

Thats an analogue meter? So whats wrong with AVO's amd Simpsons, I thought that they were also rated meters?

Avos are very unreliable (it's difficult finding one that isn't wonky these days), have strange 15v batteries that don't exist.

So you've never thought of stacking some 3V LR44's and adding some copper or brass tubing and covering it all in shrink sleeve to make the same length as a 15V cell ? Really, I thought you'd be a bit more like Blackadder with a surprisingly cunning plan.   

When I won my AVO it came with a spare 15v battery. I have also seen them for sale somewhere recently too.

You've always been able to get 15V W10's or whatever they want to name them but why when a few LR44's will do the job. Shite loads cheaper too.

The £3.95 ones on Ebay seem to be LR44's shrinkwrapped together with a spacer terminal on one end.

Copy cats, first mention right here on EEVblog years ago. 

[bd139]

This is what I mean about the batteries. The moment you have to start hacking batteries then it's a PITA.

CPC apparently sell something suitable: http://cpc.farnell.com/varta/px74-10lr54/battery-alkaline-mn154-v74px-15v/dp/BT05725