Author Topic: List your test equipment "scores" here!  (Read 777357 times)

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Offline MadTux

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #400 on: September 29, 2015, 02:45:13 pm »
My 8566AB from page 22 is now finally fixed.

Front panel got epoxied (sometimes added cotton fibers to expoxy for more strength) back into shape after removing original paint and metal coating. Added some plywood to make it more stable. Don't know why HP originally didn't do it that way.




Then I painted it with red steel primer paint and finally paint brushed it in black.


The PLL unlock faults were somewhat funny, because they appeared mostly at the start of a sweep. If the analyzer was set to long sweep times with narrow span, the PLL would lock and the errors mostly disappear. So I started probing around and found voltage spikes on most power rails at the beginning of each sweep. The A10A1-8 15-30MHz LF PLL would unlock or lock on a wrong frequency after each such spike. Since the YIG coils are tuned before each sweep and draw a lot of current doing so, I guessed that some of those silvery tantalum caps on PLL boards and/or YIG tuning boards were killed by ripple caused by the failed big blue 5V electrolytic cap, which I replaced previously.

Thereby I replaced most of those tantals on the YIG driver boards, A16 sweep generator board and some of those on the A10A1-8 15-30MHz LF PLL boards. As replacement I mostly used Wima PET foil caps (they last forever, but are only available up to 10-15uF and are quite large) and electrolytics (on places with less space or larger capacitance). After that, I adjusted the sweep generator pots on A16 board and the PLL unlock faults were gone.


Finally tested it with my HP 8684B cavity tuned oscillator. Frequency wise is not very stable (no PLL lock), so I couln't test the narrower spans, because the signal would drift away.
11GHz @ -45dBm indicated on 8684B:



Guess that the -52dBm on 8566AB is partly due to cable losses. Maybe the YIG preselector/filter in harmonic mixer assembly is also slightly misaligned. I also don't know how accurate the 8684B amplitude really is.

Second harmonic of 10GHz/+15dBm signal from  8684B (cavity oscillators produce quite clean signal, since high Q, so you only get very small harmonics):


Now I need to get a Gigatronics 1026 or something similar (HP 8340/8341 is usually much too expensive for me) along with power meter to verify the amplitude on all ranges.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2015, 03:25:25 pm by MadTux »
 

Offline Alex Nikitin

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #401 on: September 29, 2015, 08:55:23 pm »
OK, that unit is only ten years younger than me, and somebody has removed the mains lead (possibly even for a good reason). However for £30 I still think it is a nice score  8) . I am planning to restore it and use it in my lab.

Cheers

Alex





« Last Edit: September 29, 2015, 08:59:05 pm by Alex Nikitin »
 

Offline Halvmand

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #402 on: September 29, 2015, 09:13:24 pm »
Yay. My time to score some test gear plus some other stuff.

The test gear is chinese but was practically free, so i couldn’t say no. And it is all new.

The test gear is from a friends dad, and to makea long story short they are now mine to sell, and the clamp meter and multimeter are mine to keep.

I took the clamp meter and the multimeter apart.
The clamp meter has solid input jacks, and a really good continuity buzzer, good range of funktions, and metal threaded insert for the battery door.. I’m impressed.
The multimeter is just a cheap multimeter with an unfused 10 A range. Nothing to write home about.

Other than the clamp and multimeter there was a  Victor 824 sound level meter, Victor 816B anemometer, VC60B megger, Victor 1010A lux meter, and a CVS borescope. All the finest test gear chinese yen can buy.

Wait. There’s more than test gear.
I scored 6 racks mostly full of components, some test leads, and some random stuff for 3 cases of beer.
This lot came from a colleague, whoose former profession was EE related.

I've included pictures of the above mentioned gear.

I also scored some power tools incredibly cheap.
New Dewalt dcd734 14,4V drill set. comes with two li-ion batteries and charger.
Used Bosch phg500-2 hot air gun
Used Bosch pbh16re  sts hammer drill
Used Bosch gst500pe jigsaw
Used No name drill
All in great shape.
If you want i will take some pictures of those too.
 

Offline Halvmand

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #403 on: September 29, 2015, 09:15:41 pm »
More pictures.
 

Offline eas

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #404 on: October 03, 2015, 03:06:36 am »
Did one of your manage to snag the HP 3458a that sold on Thursday for $2K less than an hour after it was listed, because I didn't (thank god, I think, maybe).

Much more mundane, but I did manage to scoop up a 34401a for just about $200, shipped. It arrived today. The most obvious defect in the listing is that the front/rear terminal switch wasn't quite right. Turned out the button/extender it had just pulled free of the locking notch on the switch. I fixed it by mistake while putting the meter face down to open it. It's also missing a handle, as expected. Display may be a little dim, but quite readable.



Passes the self-test. Looks like it was made in the early 90s. There is a cal sticker dated from ~5 years ago. Checks against my DMMCheck+ are consistent with a properly functioning meter within it's tolerances on everything I can check, except the 100Ohm, which is range is a bit further out. Now to decide whether to keep it as one of my working meters, replacing a Keithley 2000, or sell it. Diversity of manufacturers is appealing, but one of the reasons I bought Keithleys in the first place were the slots for a MUX/switch card.
 

Offline TSL

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #405 on: October 03, 2015, 03:25:31 am »
but I did manage to scoop up a 34401a for just about $200, shipped.

Nice! - I've been watching out for one of those too. Shipping to Oz can be a killer though :(

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Offline bitseeker

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #406 on: October 03, 2015, 03:31:23 am »
but I did manage to scoop up a 34401a for just about $200, shipped

Good "score" eas! They've been going for quite a pretty penny recently.

Quote
Display may be a little dim, but quite readable.

Looks OK to me, especially considering its age. I've seen worse.

Quote
Passes the self-test. Looks like it was made in the early 90s.

Looks similar vintage as mine. Does the serial number start with 61?

Quote
Now to decide whether to keep it as one of my working meters, replacing a Keithley 2000, or sell it. Diversity of manufacturers is appealing, but one of the reasons I bought Keithleys in the first place were the slots for a MUX/switch card.

Well, given the prices they're going for right now, selling it is a rather tempting proposition.
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 

Offline longview

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #407 on: October 03, 2015, 01:10:10 pm »
Earlier this year they were cleaning at work and I scored a HP5335A counter, a 30V/10A Oltronix PSU and three HP 3456A digital voltmeters for free. Later I built my own RF prescaler board for the counter, it works ok but a lot of room for improvement wrt. sensitivity.

Last week I found a Fluke 6060B RF signal generator for $210, cheapest one I can find right now is $650. Downside was rear mounted connectors and no guarantee it was working (though "pulled from a working environment").

Got it yesterday, works perfectly, despite having a fan there was hardly a trace of dust inside. The Cal sticker on the outer panel was broken, presumably when the original owner pulled the GPIB module, but the inner electronics can still had an unbroken sticker.

The connectors were trivial to move back to the front, just had to shorten the modulation cable, remove the original semi-rigid SMA-SMA assembly and N-SMA connector and replace it with a new SMA-N adapter (original wouldn't fit with the screws on the front) and a small SMA-SMA patch cable.

The up-arrow button is slightly less sensitive than the others, and the membrane is partly ripped on the RF on/off button, display works, RF output is perfect. Original timebase is the standard type, pretty close to spot on all things considered.
Already ordered parts to mount an OCXO with a separate always on PSU just for kicks, but for now it's connected to my GPSDO along with the rest of the gear.
When I install the OCXO I'll try to fix the membrane and clean the arrow key.
 

Offline AF6LJ

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #408 on: October 04, 2015, 03:16:33 am »
Scored some goodies today at the SanDiego Ham Fest Pictures on Wednesday.

Sue AF6LJ
 

Offline xwarpTopic starter

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #409 on: October 06, 2015, 08:33:30 am »
Just recently, another Fluke 87V for $25. (no leads, rubber boot or case, and for that price, don't care).

This weekend at the local swap meet, a Fluke i410 AC/DC 400 amp current clamp for $10.

 

Offline Alex Nikitin

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #410 on: October 06, 2015, 10:32:54 am »
It is not a recent score, but still a nice one! I am considering an LCD display replacement from simmconlabs.com, perhaps if I will use the 3563A more often such an investment would make sense.

Cheers

Alex

 

Offline PaulAm

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #411 on: October 06, 2015, 02:35:07 pm »
Not really test equipment, but I just picked up a 90's paper tape reader/punch for $30.   These still go for several hundred bucks on ebay when they show up (there's limited application for old CNC equipment).  A roll of paper tape costs more than that these days.  Only problem was 4 rotted grommets holding a drive motor.  It reads at a blazingly fast 400 chars/sec ; that's a high-speed reader :-DD
 

Offline MadTux

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #412 on: October 06, 2015, 03:48:27 pm »
One paper tape char = 6bits = 0.75bytes? Which would make an amazing 300bytes/s or 1.08MB/h.

BTW, what is the capacity of paper tape in kB/tape? Just wondering, since that is the last human readable form of digital data storage.
 

Offline retrolefty

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #413 on: October 06, 2015, 06:22:20 pm »
Not really test equipment, but I just picked up a 90's paper tape reader/punch for $30.   These still go for several hundred bucks on ebay when they show up (there's limited application for old CNC equipment).  A roll of paper tape costs more than that these days.  Only problem was 4 rotted grommets holding a drive motor.  It reads at a blazingly fast 400 chars/sec ; that's a high-speed reader :-DD

I recall having to fly to Renton WA in the 70s. to service/commission a mini-computer system for Boeing aircraft. The system generated  mylar punched tapes used for all the CNC equipment for the aircraft being built in that factory, 747s I think. It was a hugh building that had building inside of the building!

I also serviced teletype equipment in the US Air Force, they used the old 5-level paper tape. So lots of tape chad passed over and around this old fart.   :-+
 

Online Howardlong

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #414 on: October 06, 2015, 07:26:00 pm »
The electro-mechanical Creed teleprinter/reader combos I used to use when I first programmed computers where five hole 50bps on an 80V 20mA loop. The optical readers on the computer itself were much faster, 500cps, or 2,500bps with 5 hole. For me they were a marvel at the time, but the teleprinter mechanicals were well beyond me, I'm definitely an electronics dude.

Edit: for really trivial typos, you could fix the tape manually by punching holes yourself or filling them in, and hoping the hacked tape didn't get stuck in the high speed reader, because if it did you had a splicing job on your hands too.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2015, 07:28:11 pm by Howardlong »
 

Offline med6753

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #415 on: October 09, 2015, 05:40:28 am »
Here's my score and it was free! A fully optioned Tek 2465 DMS Scope. My brother works for a device placement company that was going to write it off and scrap it. He asked if he could have it and they agreed and he in turn gave it to me. It's mostly functional with a few issues that I've been working thru with the help of the Tek Yahoo group. I plan on joining the 2465B teardown thread where I'll go into detail as to what's been done so far and what is left to do.
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Offline Cubdriver

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #416 on: October 09, 2015, 07:13:05 am »
Here's my score and it was free! A fully optioned Tek 2465 DMS Scope. My brother works for a device placement company that was going to write it off and scrap it. He asked if he could have it and they agreed and he in turn gave it to me. It's mostly functional with a few issues that I've been working thru with the help of the Tek Yahoo group. I plan on joining the 2465B teardown thread where I'll go into detail as to what's been done so far and what is left to do.

Very nice looking scope, and you'd be hard pressed to beat 'free' for the price!  Congrats!

-Pat
If it jams, force it.  If it breaks, you needed a new one anyway...
 

Offline stiffman

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #417 on: October 09, 2015, 12:07:14 pm »
my work is clearing our pile of dead and obsolete junk from our "graveyard",
Generally nothing interesting, but I've saved a handful of cherrys from the lot.
I've got a tektronics scope ( i think its a 465 from memory)
A huntron tracker


a couple of tektronics TM500 ( i think) racks.

in the smaller rack there are:
dm502 Digital Multimeter
DC 501 110Mhz counter
SG502 Oscillator

and the larger rack:
DC504 Counter/timer
FG504 40mhz Function generator
FG502 Function generator

most units seem to power up, the only unit that doesn't seem to work is the FG502 function generator. there is no on light, so i can only assume for now that it doesn't work



a dynascan 520Mhz frequency counter


and some other bits and pieces, mostly probes and leads.

There is only a couple of other bits of any vague interest left to go when the garbage people come back, but I figure they are of little use, to me anyway, like colour TV pattern generators, a tektronix 305 data analyser, and a beefy looking Trio AC volt meter, so the tip will get those i guess.

Now I think i have got some neat old gear. Overkill for my experience, but hopefully they will come in handy some time!
 

Offline PaulAm

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #418 on: October 09, 2015, 11:24:52 pm »
You sure about that tek 305?  A Sony/Tek 305 was a 5 Mhz scope with a builtin dmm.  If that's a 308, grab it.  The 308 is an 8 bit LA that also does signature analysis and rs232 decode.  It's not a great LA, but it's nice for small projects.  The signature analysis is good for Tek and HP equipment up to the early 90s if the service manual has signatures.
 

Offline aargee

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #419 on: October 10, 2015, 12:40:22 am »
It's a shame Stiffman, "dumpster dive" type stuff in Aus is hard to come by. It's not possible to share the unwanted stuff with the group?
Not easy, not hard, just need to be incentivised.
 

Offline stiffman

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #420 on: October 10, 2015, 01:08:42 am »
You're right, I miss typed, Its a 308 data analyser.
Crappy pic:


I didn't bother with it because when i previously investigated it, it sounded like it had a fairly specific purpose.
I figured it would be more a waste of space in my shed as much as anything, but if it can do things like RS232 decoding, that might make it handy to have all by itself, heck, that might make it useful for me at work.

Aargee:
unfortunately its not really possible to offer the majority what is there.
If someone had a use for the video signal generators or something, I could probably manage that, but that's about it i'm afraid.

Crappy pics:
Video generators



AC meter:
 

Offline aargee

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #421 on: October 10, 2015, 01:19:01 am »
Yes, I can relate to that. Workplace restrictions and/or logistics with this sort of stuff is quite common. Our dumpsters are locked!
Not easy, not hard, just need to be incentivised.
 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #422 on: October 10, 2015, 05:52:08 am »
Just picked up an Agilent 33120A AWG with the external ref in/out option for a great deal off the 'bay. Yes it is older but it has wonderful specs in the audio region and I just couldn't pull the trigger on a lower end Rigol/Siglent.

33120A arrived the other day - turned it on and ran the full self test which is promptly failed. So while it was a good deal perhaps there was a reason! Contacted the seller and he refunded part of the sale price after some negotiation. So now it is a repair project. The unit itself it actually in very good condition and still had the Agilent factory seals in place. It fails with error 603 and 608. 603 is a ram test failure - the ram is in stock @ Digikey though, will get it next week. Fingers crossed error 608 will go away once 603 is fixed.
VE7FM
 

Offline PTR_1275

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #423 on: October 10, 2015, 06:14:54 am »
How much did you score the 33120a for? I've been keeping an eye out for one of them or even the 33220a for my bench.
 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: List your test equipment "scores" here!
« Reply #424 on: October 10, 2015, 06:21:22 am »
How much did you score the 33120a for? I've been keeping an eye out for one of them or even the 33220a for my bench.

Well after the refund it was $155.00 USD shipped, and it has the external ref in/out option. So it will be a great deal if new ram fixes it, if it doesn't then not so much...
VE7FM
 


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