List your test equipment "scores" here!

[robert_]

Does it drift by itself or only when you move it? Yes, you can tell they never changed the circuit, the specs for all versions/manufacturers claim a 30 hour battery life ...

Most drift was from opening/closing the clamp. I did just clean the mating surfaces which did improve that quite significantly.
There is a bit of LF noise remaining, but thats what to expect from anyhing hall based.

Also note my edit above, almost certainly its designed as a PR20 as the board says just that. Fluke also did stick their label on many other LEM designed probes, most of which are pretty good. Also, LEM bought up a lot of other companies back then (like NORMA, who made excellent power analyzers, which was closed down soon after), so the probes origins probably are around whatever HEME was.

[robert_]

Just did a quick+dirty BW measurement on the PR20: -3db is around 180Khz on mine, pretty flat out to 100Khz with a bit of peaking beyond that.
So there is no difference between the i30 and i30s except for the cable.
Gonna install a BNC cable on mine to make it more useful and possibly couple less noise than with the unshielded one+adaptor.

[PaulAm]

Picked up a nice Tek 485 350MHz scope for $35 the other day at my local university surplus outlet.  Doesn't work, the power supply is a switcher in tick mode, so that should be a fun project.  Probably a bad tantalum somewhere.

Sometimes the deals are great, sometimes they just have junk.  I was looking at a 4 channel LeCroy, but there was a list of issues taped to it and the screen burn was awful. The guy behind me picked that one up 

[ChunkyPastaSauce]

Picked up a nice Tek 485 350MHz scope for $35 the other day at my local university surplus outlet.  Doesn't work, the power supply is a switcher in tick mode, so that should be a fun project.  Probably a bad tantalum somewhere.

Sometimes the deals are great, sometimes they just have junk.  I was looking at a 4 channel LeCroy, but there was a list of issues taped to it and the screen burn was awful. The guy behind me picked that one up 

... let me guess... the LeCroy was a 500MHz 2gs/s scope right?  That place is freaking awesome.... but keep it quiet   

[PaulAm]

Were you the guy behind me ? 

Timing is everything; it would be fun to work at that place.

[ChunkyPastaSauce]

Were you the guy behind me ? 

Timing is everything; it would be fun to work at that place.

Lol I turned it down for similar reasons, so probably not same person.

Working there would be pretty awesome... and good music to go with

I think I might be there tomorrow for a lathe

[PedroDaGr8]

Picked these up on Craigslist this weekend for $10. Supposedly brand new, were still in the stapled package and the cables still had the twist tie

[ChunkyPastaSauce]

Were you the guy behind me ? 

Timing is everything; it would be fun to work at that place.

Lol I turned it down for similar reasons, so probably not same person.

Working there would be pretty awesome... and good music to go with

I think I might be there tomorrow for a lathe

Outbid by like grand.

I missed a full good quality scanning electron microscope setup.... sold for $1,200 

[JPortici]

Got both of 'em for 60 euros + shipping



BEEEAUTY

[TheSteve]

Spam removed by moderator

As you mentioned there are already multiple threads regarding this. I don't want to be negative at all but for me it is all a bit excessive, especially when there is at least one other forum member who produced a video and is competing. That said I still hope someone from the eevblog wins.

[PA0PBZ]

As you mentioned there are already multiple threads regarding this. I don't want to be negative at all but for me it is all a bit excessive, especially when there is at least one other forum member who produced a video and is competing. That said I still hope someone from the eevblog wins.

+1

[AF6LJ]

Got both of 'em for 60 euros + shipping



BEEEAUTY

That is enough to make a gal all warm and fuzzy inside.

[Luke]

The sorted data:
   Voc    Isc(A)
1  30.0   8.2
2  29.7   7.2
3  29.9   6.2
4  20.2   8.0
5  20.6   7.3
6  20.3   7.2
7  19.9   7.4
8  10.3   6.5

Number 8 is pretty dead, the others all seem not bad, and quite worth using.
Figures taken with the panels manually tilted up to approximately point at the sun. But a few minor shadings - long grass, clothes hoist, etc.

I just scored 6 panels like yours today for $100 and one panel was faulty. I have been able to resurrect it by replacing the failed diode in it. The panel was only giving out about 2/3 it's normal voltage because the diode had gone short.

[razberik]

Is it OK to write it here ?

I was going to bid on eBay.de today for HP 8591A with tracking generator. I said to myself 820€ is adequate. 3 seconds before end I clicked BID and then
Dieser Artikel kann leider nicht nach Tschechische Republik verschickt werden.

I couldn't believe it to be true. I re-set my slovak registration address to german address 2-3 years ago exactly for this case. My address was re-re-set to slovak without noticing me.
SA ended for 505€.

Todays lesson: Always place some test bid, something like 1€ higher long before auction end.

[tmbinc]

I was going to bid on eBay.de today for HP 8591A with tracking generator. I said to myself 820€ is adequate. 3 seconds before end I clicked BID and then
Dieser Artikel kann leider nicht nach Tschechische Republik verschickt werden.
[...]
Todays lesson: Always place some test bid, something like 1€ higher long before auction end.

Had something similar with a Tek DPO5034; ended up doing a test-bid, and figured out the seller wouldn't ship to Germany. Created an US account, and shipped to a friend. Ended up paying $5133 (~4.5k EUR back then), which was a pretty good deal - at least if you like Tektronix scopes.

[JPortici]

That is enough to make a gal all warm and fuzzy inside.

Quite. I had Dave moments for all saturday morning while checking out the insides

[cncjerry]

HP 4262A LCR meter.  Don't know why they are typically so expensive ($500USD) on eBay, but I bid on one and got it for around $150.  It was sold as 'parts or not working'.  I powered it up, fixed the first problem with missing segments in the display by reseating the cards.  The next problem took 16hrs of debugging but it turned out to be a shorting strap on the terminals (for 4w) that wasn't shorting.  Nice meter, pretty consistent down to the 10th of a picofarad repeatability.  Been looking for an LCR for a while.

[Cubdriver]

Nice find on the LCR meter.  That's a handy beast to have on the bench.  Glad to hear you got it for so little and were able to repair it!

-Pat

[AF6LJ]

That is enough to make a gal all warm and fuzzy inside.

Quite. I had Dave moments for all saturday morning while checking out the insides

I keep saying I am going to get one of those Tek 7000 series scopes and a few plug-ins.
Really nice gear. 

[PTR_1275]

Just picked up a quadtech (formerly genrad, now iet) decade box, 10 ohm to 11 Meg ohm. $90 delivered.

Should be a nice compliment to my genrad 0.1 ohm to 1 Meg ohm box.

[TAMHAN]

Another Unigor 6e, this time hopefuly unmodified but with some battery acid corrosion 

Hope to be able to end up with two working ones in the end. If I ever have the time...

[TerraHertz]

The sorted data:
   Voc    Isc(A)
1  30.0   8.2
2  29.7   7.2
3  29.9   6.2
4  20.2   8.0
5  20.6   7.3
6  20.3   7.2
7  19.9   7.4
8  10.3   6.5

Number 8 is pretty dead, the others all seem not bad, and quite worth using.
Figures taken with the panels manually tilted up to approximately point at the sun. But a few minor shadings - long grass, clothes hoist, etc.

I just scored 6 panels like yours today for $100 and one panel was faulty. I have been able to resurrect it by replacing the failed diode in it. The panel was only giving out about 2/3 it's normal voltage because the diode had gone short.

Thanks for the tip! At the time I didn't open the terminal boxes, and had forgotten there were diodes in there. (To take the current past cell strings that are shaded, so they don't get reverse biased and damaged.)
I had noticed that the voltages were all close to 30V, 20V or 10V, so wondered if there was some 'rule of thirds' happening.  In my defense I would have figured this out once I got around to opening the junction boxes up. Was just in a hurry that day, and stacked the panels away under cover.

I PM'd you. Said I'd check my panels next week when current urgent chores done. But then, I couldn't wait. Just now opened up panel #8 (the worst one.)

Could tell by eye there's a diode problem - one of the three has leads discoloured slightly by heat, and has an 'extrusion'.
They are only clipped in. Pulled them out and measured them:
 Diode 1 (discoloured) 364 ohms both ways.
 Diode 2  dead short
 Diode 3  dead short

So the output from this panel was the result of two shorted strings, and one string driving a resistive load of 364 ohms. (Heating it up quite a bit.)

Also cleaned the lichen off the glass. Mold-killer spray, scourer pad, then hosed off. Easy.
Too bad it's evening now. In room fluro lighting without the diodes, the three cell strings (each 18 cells in series) produce 5.87V, 5.99V, 6.4V.
Pretty close. Differences likely mostly due to uneven lighting across the panel.

The diodes are 12SQ045   ( Schottky, 12A 45V, Vf=0.55V@10A )  Commonly available.
Ordered 50 for US$15 via aliexpress

With luck, maybe I'll have 8 perfectly good panels.  Woo hoo!

20160420  Edit to add: Had some free time and it's a sunny day, so I took panel #8 outside in the sun and measured output without the dead diodes. Voc=31.9V, Isc=8.03A  Excellent!

I can't wait till the 50 new diodes arrive. I'll leave retesting all the panels till then, since I don't want to open the junction boxes twice. They use plastic lid retaining clips; I'm afraid of breakages if I keep playing with them.
Once they are all fixed I'll measure them under load at max power operating point.

Edit on 20160510 to add: Started a thread over here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/renewable-energy/solar-electric-panels-vs-lightning-emp/ to update on those panels. Some nice pics of EMP arc-tracking on the cells. But the panels all work!

[Cubdriver]

<big snip for brevity>

With luck, maybe I'll have 8 perfectly good panels.  Woo hoo!

Now THAT would be REALLY sweet!!     Fingers crossed for you!

-Pat

[cncjerry]

Just picked up a quadtech (formerly genrad, now iet) decade box, 10 ohm to 11 Meg ohm. $90 delivered.

Should be a nice compliment to my genrad 0.1 ohm to 1 Meg ohm box.

I find a decade box to one of the most useful pieces of gear.  I've plotted mine so I have a good idea of its calibration and I can check my meters regularly.  I have an ESI that is incredibly accurate and stable.  I don't know why they combine resistances though, there is an economy in the box that I haven't taken the time to understand, but even so, the wire wound resistors are very stable.

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,

I am just back from a trip to Silicon Valley. I made some special arrangements so I could attend the Electronics Fleamarket at D'Anza College in Cupertino, CA.
Details of the market can be found here:

http://www.electronicsfleamarket.com/

I managed to find one of the items on my want list, a set of cables for an HP4155B Semiconductor Parameter analyzer. These use Triaxial cables and connectors. The connectors look like BNCs, from a distance but are quite different. They are used on HP Semiconductor Parameter analyzers and some Keithley SMUs.

This is what I found:



The diecast box, has Triaxial connectors on one side and BNCs on the other. There were four cables attached.


The box had a price tag from Weirdstuff. (www.weirdstuff.com) a Sunnyvale surplus store, indicating the box had been priced at $5.00 in 2006. I don't know when  it was bought or if the price was for the box or the complete assembly.



Here is a close up showing the Triaxial connector.




I knew I had the right thing when I found the labels on the box 'SMU1', 'SMU2'....




I bought the whole thing for $5.00. I was really pleased to get this. I can make proper use of my HP4155b shown in this thread:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-4155b-semiconductor-parameter-analyzer-smu-need-master-disk/msg713021/#msg713021


Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B