Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[HalFET]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

[tggzzz]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

Welcome to the rathole. Your only chance of escape is to open you wallet.

[Specmaster]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

Nice catch, expensive I bet though?

[HalFET]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

Welcome to the rathole. Your only chance of escape is to open you wallet.

Well, you're talking to the person who has a Weston cell sitting on his desk on top of his Keithley 2001. 

And actually it was ok, does have a blown power supply but it's a good catch for 500 EUR. Worst case I strip it for parts, best case I have a working calibrator after giving it some much needed love. My main concern is actually the price tag for getting the calibrator calibrated, I don't think I'm getting a cal certificate on this one for less than twice the price I bought it for.

[beanflying]

Nearly cheaper to buy a new bit of used gear each year in Cal instead of paying for getting gear Re calibrated 

At least you can go around your own gear and check it against the new toy then 

[HalFET]

Nearly cheaper to buy a new bit of used gear each year in Cal instead of paying for getting gear Re calibrated 

At least you can go around your own gear and check it against the new toy then 

I calibrate my gear using calibrated equipment at work usually 

[Mr. Scram]

I calibrate my gear using calibrated equipment at work usually 

Calibration party at HalFET's work! Bring out yer gear!

[HalFET]

I calibrate my gear using calibrated equipment at work usually 

Calibration party at HalFET's work! Bring out yer gear!

Lol, might get away with that given its a university. 

[beanflying]

Call it 'Research' into the aging and drift of old test and measurement equipment over time. Apply for a grant for the work use the money to buy Beer and food have a great party while playing with toys

[xrunner]

My latest buy was a pack of four 50 ohm feed through terminators from a China distributor. Except that I got double my money on one since it was 100 ohms LOL. 

But I managed to fix the thing so all is well now I suppose.

Pics here -

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/50-ohm-feed-through-terminator/

[bd139]

I assume one of the 100R resistors fell off inside it?

I looked at the Chinese ones and got scared off. Ended up buying one of these: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/rf-terminators/5464695/

Some confusion over whether it is 500MHz, 1GHz or 4GHz but it does the job nicely and appears not to be made of Chinesium. Works out about $15 each in funny money Turns out it was made in China anyway but at least it arrived next day and not next century

This has now got me addicted to buying attenuators. Got a nice 20dB one the other day: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/rf-attenuators/8858416/

Then I needed some more BNC cables to connect them so I now have 2x nice Amphenol cables among the shitty homebrew ones and the no brand CPC ones.

Actually I think I've got a 50 ohm system problem brewing.

[Mr. Scram]

My latest buy was a pack of four 50 ohm feed through terminators from a China distributor. Except that I got double my money on one since it was 100 ohms LOL. 

But I managed to fix the thing so all is well now I suppose.

Pics here -

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/50-ohm-feed-through-terminator/

I just posted in that thread. I bought two a while back too. I have proper Molex T pieces and 50 ohm end terminators, so these are just a nice to have and a bit less cumbersome. I might get some proper ones later, but they're surprisingly expensive.

[xrunner]

I assume one of the 100R resistors fell off inside it?

One of them had a bad solder job at the brass, I just applied flux and re-flowed. 

[xrunner]

I have proper Molex T pieces and 50 ohm end terminators, so these are just a nice to have and a bit less cumbersome. I might get some proper ones later, but they're surprisingly expensive.

I have looked for the Tektronix brand on Ebay which is what I used when I was working but they are really expensive (even used).

[bitseeker]

This for here is most appropriate  Spotted last night on evilbay for sale.

That fit the old analog meter enclosure quite nicely.

However, I'm not a fan of the upside-down '2' posing as a '5'. Makes my head hurt.

[bitseeker]

Nixies are boring.

Has anybody found any test equipment using NIMO tubes for a display?

Nope. Fran's video was the only instance I'd ever seen of one. Quite some burn-in on that one, but surprisingly works fine, regardless.

These tubes are called ITS1A or ITS1B and in opposite to the NIMO ones, you can get them on ebay.
But they aren't cheap as well.

Now, those I've not seen before. Neat.

[bitseeker]

My main concern is actually the price tag for getting the calibrator calibrated, I don't think I'm getting a cal certificate on this one for less than twice the price I bought it for.

Yeah, that's the thing that's kept me from getting one. For the cost of calibrating a calibrator, I may as well just get my instruments calibrated & adjusted.

[Specmaster]

I assume one of the 100R resistors fell off inside it?

I looked at the Chinese ones and got scared off. Ended up buying one of these: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/rf-terminators/5464695/

Some confusion over whether it is 500MHz, 1GHz or 4GHz but it does the job nicely and appears not to be made of Chinesium. Works out about $15 each in funny money Turns out it was made in China anyway but at least it arrived next day and not next century

This has now got me addicted to buying attenuators. Got a nice 20dB one the other day: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/rf-attenuators/8858416/

Then I needed some more BNC cables to connect them so I now have 2x nice Amphenol cables among the shitty homebrew ones and the no brand CPC ones.

Actually I think I've got a 50 ohm system problem brewing.

Given that we have established that its terminator, it leaves me wondering whats other 499 functions are, I'm intrigued. That specification really is a bit on the wooly side isnt it? 

[Specmaster]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

Welcome to the rathole. Your only chance of escape is to open you wallet.

Well, you're talking to the person who has a Weston cell sitting on his desk on top of his Keithley 2001. 

And actually it was ok, does have a blown power supply but it's a good catch for 500 EUR. Worst case I strip it for parts, best case I have a working calibrator after giving it some much needed love. My main concern is actually the price tag for getting the calibrator calibrated, I don't think I'm getting a cal certificate on this one for less than twice the price I bought it for.

personally, I'd go with the flow, if the majority my meters all agreed on certain figures then thats what I'd go with and call calibrated, at least good enough for most peoples purposes. I seriously doubt that you're going to have a situation where the majority are incorrect, especially if they are high end meters.

[beanflying]

 Part of my reason to chase some sort of less uncertainty in measurements is for being able to offer products to customers with a better initial accuracy and an idea of drift over time.

More Pommie switch and resistor porn from Muirhead today. 0-10 and 10-100 ohms. Just checked under 0.02% 

[HalFET]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

Welcome to the rathole. Your only chance of escape is to open you wallet.

Well, you're talking to the person who has a Weston cell sitting on his desk on top of his Keithley 2001. 

And actually it was ok, does have a blown power supply but it's a good catch for 500 EUR. Worst case I strip it for parts, best case I have a working calibrator after giving it some much needed love. My main concern is actually the price tag for getting the calibrator calibrated, I don't think I'm getting a cal certificate on this one for less than twice the price I bought it for.

personally, I'd go with the flow, if the majority my meters all agreed on certain figures then thats what I'd go with and call calibrated, at least good enough for most peoples purposes. I seriously doubt that you're going to have a situation where the majority are incorrect, especially if they are high end meters.

I check if the keithley 2001 stays in spec using the weston cell,  it's a cheap but effective verification standard really.

[Specmaster]

Have a wonderful Christmas one and all.

[tggzzz]

Just bought a Fluke 5200A calibrator on eBay, let the voltnuttery commence!

Welcome to the rathole. Your only chance of escape is to open you wallet.

Well, you're talking to the person who has a Weston cell sitting on his desk on top of his Keithley 2001. 

And actually it was ok, does have a blown power supply but it's a good catch for 500 EUR. Worst case I strip it for parts, best case I have a working calibrator after giving it some much needed love. My main concern is actually the price tag for getting the calibrator calibrated, I don't think I'm getting a cal certificate on this one for less than twice the price I bought it for.

Only one Weston cell? Pah. I've got 3, from a local school that was closing down. One is from 1949 and is still good, see
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/poor-man-gets-his-candies-(6x-weston-cells)/msg1338437/#msg1338437
https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2016/12/28/a-weston-standard-cell-an-introduction-to-voltnuttery/#more-852

One use for saturated Weston Cells is to use them as thermometers. Until you can do that you can't consider yourself a voltnut 

As for (DC) calibrators, I'd go for a calibrated voltage source, and then a 7 decade KVD.

[tggzzz]

I check if the keithley 2001 stays in spec using the weston cell,  it's a cheap but effective verification standard really.

Weston cells are likely to be lower noise than Zener-based standards, but not as stable w.r.t. temperature.

[Mr. Scram]

I received my decade resistance box today. It's quite a bit larger and heavier than expected. It does seem to be quite accurate, though. Even though it's been scratched up in a few places, I think I can actually clean most of the grime off, which should make it much more presentable than I initially thought it would be.

One knob is missing its aluminium insert. Maybe I'll look into replacing that, but that likely means replacing all the knobs.

Also, post #2000.