The most expensive equipment that you have

[DJKA]

Hi, just wondering what is the TOP 3 most expensive gear(scope, power supply, function generator, multimeter...) you have obtained for your electronics hobby ever?

My list is:
1. LG OS5020 Oscilloscope (dual ch. 20MHz)   - $94
2. Uni-T UT70A DMM  - $90
3. K and H Products SD-35 solderless breadboard - $30 <-- total crap!

 ;-)

[olsenn]

1. Rigol DSA815-TG Spectrum Analyzer - $1500
2. Rigol DG2041A Arb. Waveform Generator - $900
3. Many items in the $400 - $600 range

[tesla500]

1. Agilent MSO6104A 1GHz 4ch scope - MSRP $20k, but got a good deal at $5k from an auction by Newark (Farnell). They set reserve prices after that!
2. Four 1131A 3.5GHz Diff probes for above - MSRP $4k each, got them for $900 total on ebay
3. TCP312/TCPA300 30A 100MHz current probe and amp - Probe $750 from ebay, amp given to me free from work after someone blew it up and "repair" (read "replace the main board") was about the price of a new one. I was able to fix it and decided to wait for a reasonable deal for the probe on ebay.

[T4P]

1. Agilent MSO6104A 1GHz 4ch scope - MSRP $20k, but got a good deal at $5k from an auction by Newark (Farnell). They set reserve prices after that!
2. Four 1131A 3.5GHz Diff probes for above - MSRP $4k each, got them for $900 total on ebay
3. TCP312/TCPA300 30A 100MHz current probe and amp - Probe $750 from ebay, amp given to me free from work after someone blew it up and "repair" (read "replace the main board") was about the price of a new one. I was able to fix it and decided to wait for a reasonable deal for the probe on ebay.

Quite a lot of very high-end gear you have there, it's really nice to have such a bit of kit.

[Bored@Work]

1) The wife.
2) The wife.
3) The wife.

[odessa]

Lol at above 

Mine is my Agilent DSO x 2012A  ( all Daves fault  )  £1300
Fluke 83 V  £150
Instek PS 3030 PSU £100

[eV1Te]

I own a JEOL JSM-T200 Scanning electron microscope that I have in my living room (gift from a university since they bought a new one), the price was probably around $100k new! But today (like with old analog oscilloscopes) no one wants them. (Still works very well, but requires more time than newer digital ones)

Here is a test video I made when I got it some time ago (filament from a normal 60W light bulb).


Also attached 2 pictures that I took in my living room, Light bulb filament from small Maglight flashlight and old Intel CPU that had quartz window that I could remove (Intel logo is etched into the wafer next to all the traces).

[DJKA]

Hahahahaha! 100% Awesome! ;-)

1) The wife.
2) The wife.
3) The wife.

[DJKA]

Absolutely fantastic! Wish i could have one!

I own a JEOL JSM-T200 Scanning electron microscope that I have in my living room (gift from a university since they bought a new one), the price was probably around $100k new! But today (like with old analog oscilloscopes) no one wants them. (Still works very well, but requires more time than newer digital ones)

Here is a test video I made when I got it some time ago (filament from a normal 60W light bulb).


Also attached 2 pictures that I took in my living room, Light bulb filament from small Maglight flashlight and old Intel CPU that had quartz window that I could remove (Intel logo is etched into the wafer next to all the traces).

[Lightages]

Hmm, let me see, most expensive equipment I have...... next you want my address

[Noize]

Rigol DS1051E £250
RS Professional prototypingboard w/PSU,240V £220  http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/0489100/
Got this on ebay for £37. Nice as I needed another powersupply and this has 5V and bipolar adjustable +-15V.

[sonicj]

I was able to fix it and decided to wait for a reasonable deal for the probe on ebay.

Impressive troubleshooting skills!
-sj

[T4P]

Rigol DS1051E £250
RS Professional prototypingboard w/PSU,240V £220  http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/0489100/
Got this on ebay for £37. Nice as I needed another powersupply and this has 5V and bipolar adjustable +-15V.

That ... prototyping board from RS is pricey ... for a power supply and a angled breadboard ...

[free_electron]

MSO7104 Mixed signal 4 Analog + 16 Digital 1Ghz /4Gs with all licences installed.. (I2c / SPI / deep memory / etc ) bought used.. New price ... over 20K$ ... paid .. i'm not telling.. you'd all get depressed and cry ...

54832D Infiniium 4 analog + 16 digital 1GHz / 4Gs 8Meg deep per channel with FPGa licence and Logic analyzer linkup. New price unknown but well over 30K$ ... paid 1200$ had a broken LCD panel according to seller. Turned out it was the graphics card and not the LCD .. CT6555 based panl. one fried tantalum cap ... fixed in 5 minutes
54831A Inifiniium 4 analog 600MHz 4Gs/s 64meg deep memory . new price unknown. probably an arm and a leg (because of the memory depth) ... paid 500$ for it. harddisk was nuked. new drive , install recovery disk , enter licence keys. -> works.

and the kicker :
16702B logic analyzer mainframe , option 03 , three 16740a blades and a 16520 pattern generator. New price : well over 120K$ ... paid .. 300$ ...

There's a story behind this one.
This listed on ebay for 1$. Local pickup only... listed for 3 days.I lost it initially. I get a phone call the day after since i was only the second person bidding. The first bidder couldn't make it, he had to drive up and would not make it in time .. huh ? Turns out this was a company that was relocating to a new building about 50 miles away. The listing ended on a thursday and pickup had to be on friday.. as it was their last day in the building. This company made asics for network systems but stopped a couple of years ago. they now licence their software stacks and develop these. While dismantling their office they found this machine in a closet , wrapped in a plastic bag. Nobody there knew what it was , only that it had belonged to the hardware people that all were let go about 4 years ago ... So they decided to auction it off. The money would be used to buy a new multifunction laserpinter ( scanner copier fax printer ) for the new officce. The other bidder wanted to give 400$. I told 300$ and got it.
i opened it up , not a speck of dust inside... even the fan blades were eerily clean. this machine probably has run a few days in its lifetime. one of these things that were bought when they were a startup just because they thought they might need it...

I got it linked through the network to my infiniium scope. The analyser can sync trigger with the scope , grab the analog trace data and visualise together with the trace patterns.
The machine itself runs HP/UX and exposes itself as an X-windows Host. I run an Xserver under wind7 on a local PC and use that as 'workstation'.
i have all the cables pods and other gizmos. the real kicker is i contacted agilent for the latest firmware. they sent me the install cd for free. So it is fully up to date ( the machine is still supported , although out of production and replaced by the 16900 series.

I don't use it a lot but it sure beats all those 'usb based' thingies like USBee , Salae, zeroplus and the OPen Logic Sniffer. Very handing when mucking about with FPGA's. just hook up the FPGA probe ( i have the licence for the Altera probe on the scope, since they 'talk' the LA benefits from this too ) and you can poke around inside the FPGA at full throttle.

there's a picture of my setup in the 'show your workbench section

[Flávio V]

I don't have much thinks so well....my list is going to be very short...

1-Fluke 97 (50mhz scopemeter) near probably 1.5k-3k€(from 1993)

2-Fluke 8060A (4.5 digit true RMS multimeter) 15 "contos"(near that name,in portugal in the '80,15k escudos(65€(actual(not accounting inflation))))(this was the salary of a person in portugal)(from 1982) today is probably 200-300€

3-Custom made 250VA 50A transformer near 60€(well insulated,semi-precise, powerful,small,heavy(4.7kg)) with that transformer i use the filtering PCB that contains 3 SAMXOM capacitors and cost 8€ each and reach 70-72V...(the PCB is chrome plated by soldering wire)

4-UNI-T UT50A 3.5 digit multimeter +-50-60€ first multimeter and i have replaced the 500mA glass fuse to a "stolen" 500mA ceramic one...it is interesting than lacks of a loot of circuity...but the continuity buzzer is good...loud....a loot.....more than the flukes....and almost fast....near 0.05s


For anyone than might ask,i get my non 72V power from crappy wall power supplies with a lm317k in the output to regulate..(i can't use it on the 250VA transformer because it would burn/explode/whatever)a LED with that transformer would be +- 72V input 2.5V output at 2mA so well....a loot of voltage difference...possible...but risky....those SAMXOM capacitors can discharge at 12.5A the 3...

[Noize]

Rigol DS1051E £250
RS Professional prototypingboard w/PSU,240V £220  http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/0489100/
Got this on ebay for £37. Nice as I needed another powersupply and this has 5V and bipolar adjustable +-15V.

That ... prototyping board from RS is pricey ... for a power supply and a angled breadboard ...

Not for £37. Nice regulated supplies, less leads on your workbench and much better quality breadboard than one hung low brand. They come up occasionally on ebay.
But I admit it would be a bit  excessive to buy one brand new.

[LuckyJaker]

For me


1  Agilent MSOX 3024 with a couple modules (thanks Dave)
2  Agilent 6655A power supply
3  Rigol DP 1308A
4  2 Fluke 289
5  1 Fluke 97
6  etc...


All these I use in my small electronics and firmware design contracts...
                           

[EEVblog]

1) The wife.
2) The wife.
3) The wife.

*snort*

4) Child

Dave.

[Spawn]

Hmm shall i say this? all those 4 points BoW and Dave mention has only to do with one equipment and thats your "dick"

So yeah at the end, thats the most expensive equipment I got...

[updatelee]

Advantest R3265A 8ghz spectrum analyzer bought for $2.5k
Taig CNC $2k

[NiHaoMike]

My new PC:


Main system specs:
CPU: Intel Core i7 3930K
RAM: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3
MB: Intel DX79SI
HDD: 1TB 7200RPM
GPU: Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 2GB
OS: Gentoo Linux

Low power system specs:
CPU: Intel Atom D2700
RAM: 4GB 1066MHz 1.35V DDR3
MB: Jetway JNC9KDL-2700
HDD: 1TB 7200RPM
OS: Gentoo Linux

Front panel display specs:
CPU: TI OMAP 3621
RAM: 512MB
Flash: 8GB
LCD: 7" LED backlit 600x1024 IPS with touch
OS: Cyanogenmod 7.1.0

Power system: 42A front end converter, 60A battery backup DC/DC converter, 30A battery charger, "Lainey Schmidt" digital power management controller.

And it only cost about $1000 since Intel offers a very nice employee discount on high end motherboards and CPUs and I was able to use a lot of recycled parts.

Coming in second place would be my Olympus E-510 DSLR. Third place would be my Instek GDS1062A scope. Almost making the mark would be my Asus TF101 tablet.

[DJKA]

Very nice indeed! Well, I guess many guys are jealous of your spectrum analyzer! So am I

MSO7104 Mixed signal 4 Analog + 16 Digital 1Ghz /4Gs with all licences installed.. (I2c / SPI / deep memory / etc ) bought used.. New price ... over 20K$ ... paid .. i'm not telling.. you'd all get depressed and cry ...

[Mechatrommer]

1) The wife.
2) The wife.
3) The wife.

*snort*
4) Child
Dave.

in order:
1)arms, legs body and brain
2)the dick
3)the wife
4)the child(ren)
5)the "twin" children
6)my quad core pentium PC+acc.
7)not even my rigol+acc its the last.
8}not least... my currently built diy differential probe (20-100MHz 1KV diff.V) market price $300-3000. paid a few bucks and months of pain, still is.

My new PC:

cool but i believe its time to make tiffany yep #1
edit: wait a sec. 16GB RAM, cpu "Atom"?! low power spec atom but... big fan and 7" lcd? WTF?! i dont know whats wrong with intel nowadays.

[T4P]

My new PC:

cool but i believe its time to make tiffany yep #1
edit: wait a sec. 16GB RAM, cpu "Atom"?! low power spec atom but... big fan and 7" lcd? WTF?! i dont know whats wrong with intel nowadays.

You can say that ... but that's his high power rig somewhere inside and the 7" belongs to the OMAP 3621 with the CM7.1(ICS)

[GeoffS]

*snort*

4) Child

Dave.

A child that already working, doesn't count! (I trust Sagan got paid for that ad?  )