List your test equipment "scores" here!

[Muttley Snickers]

I don't think that it was entirely free at all, emotionally and stress wise it probably cost him a packet, he earned this reward for his tireless efforts.   

And if I remember correctly he owes Daniel from Keysight some chocolates.   

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/contests/keysight-6000x-6ghz-voting-is-live-vote-for-carlos-a/

[tautech]

I don't think that it was entirely free at all, emotionally and stress wise it probably cost him a packet, he earned this reward for his tireless efforts.   

And if I remember correctly he owes Daniel from Keysight some chocolates.   

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/contests/keysight-6000x-6ghz-voting-is-live-vote-for-carlos-a/

Speaking of chocolates.......

Strumming fingers on bench. 

[Muttley Snickers]

I'm once again all out of Snickers and am currently destroying these things from Aldi which are pretty damn good, duck down to your local store and load up as much as you want and as always the cheques in the mail, silly postal services, you can't trust them.

[bitseeker]

I'll have to try those someday. I don't recall seeing them in NZ and I haven't been to Australia, yet.

[tautech]

I'll have to try those someday. I don't recall seeing them in NZ and I haven't been to Australia, yet.

I've not seen them either and I'm not sure if Muttley is trying to palm off some second rate product instead of his preferred Snickers bars. 

A year or more ago Muttley awarded me his first Snickers award of some bars that are still to materialize ...... 
When I sell some more product I'll jump on a plane to hunt him down and personally collect. 
We might do some of this while I'm there 

[nctnico]

A new toy arrived today: A Flir C2 thermal imager

which I bought as good as new with a 60% discount from Toploser. With 80x60 it is not high res but I did some tests and it seems adequate for checking boards with 0603 (and bigger) parts. This is going to be handy to check boards for potential thermal issues.

[nctnico]

My shopping spree ain't over and I saved listing the best buy for last! All the recent chatter about spectrum analysers made me want to upgrade my existing spectrum analyser to one with a color screen and preferably dumping screendumps onto USB. Actually I wanted to do that for a long time but never got round to hunting one down. Ofcourse there are the cheap Chinese spectrum analysers but I wanted at least 3GHz which means hacking or spending. So I went out for a hunt on Ebay and a couple of days ago I found some sellers with an Advantest R3477 Signal Analyser. Some digging in the manuals and pictures from various Ebay auctions made clear that this is not just a transmitter tester but actually a full fledged spectrum analyser with signal analysis features bolted on. After some research and haggling I got one for the going rate:

I'm pretty stoked about this buy. It seems several Korean Ebay sellers are unloading a big stack of these machines and their going price is around $1400 each including a 14 day warranty. Does that sound right? A spectrum analyser with USB, LAN, big 8.4" touch screen and 13GHz bandwidth for $1400 not in 'for parts' condition? I guess it does... Now someone probably chimes in and says these machine crash and burn all the time but until then I'm confident it will be fine just as my current and previous Advantest spectrum analysers.

[razberik]

Now you are obliged to do detailed teardown !

[nctnico]

Now you are obliged to do detailed teardown !

I'll do a partial teardown because no way I'm going to open or even disconnect the RF moduls if I don't have to!
OTOH the R3477 runs on embedded XP so I want to make a backup of the hard drive for sure. Also some components have a limited lifetime (Advantest is very open about that! In their manual they have a list of guaranteed lifetimes for batteries, backlights, electrolytic capacitors, etc) so I want to check those as well.

[HighVoltage]

I think this is by far the best deal on a color SA with USB.
Congratulations.

7 years ago I paid Euro 6500 for an older 12 GHz HP SA.
It works great but is a pain to get a screen shot over the GPIB and no color either.
You got a great deal!

[AF6LJ]

My shopping spree ain't over and I saved listing the best buy for last! All the recent chatter about spectrum analysers made me want to upgrade my existing spectrum analyser to one with a color screen and preferably dumping screendumps onto USB. Actually I wanted to do that for a long time but never got round to hunting one down. Ofcourse there are the cheap Chinese spectrum analysers but I wanted at least 3GHz which means hacking or spending. So I went out for a hunt on Ebay and a couple of days ago I found some sellers with an Advantest R3477 Signal Analyser. Some digging in the manuals and pictures from various Ebay auctions made clear that this is not just a transmitter tester but actually a full fledged spectrum analyser with signal analysis features bolted on. After some research and haggling I got one for the going rate:

I'm pretty stoked about this buy. It seems several Korean Ebay sellers are unloading a big stack of these machines and their going price is around $1400 each including a 14 day warranty. Does that sound right? A spectrum analyser with USB, LAN, big 8.4" touch screen and 13GHz bandwidth for $1400 not in 'for parts' condition? I guess it does... Now someone probably chimes in and says these machine crash and burn all the time but until then I'm confident it will be fine just as my current and previous Advantest spectrum analysers.

That is a very reasonable deal...
A friend's employer just bought a couple of those.

[TerraHertz]

So I went out for a hunt on Ebay and a couple of days ago I found some sellers with an Advantest R3477 Signal Analyser. Some digging in the manuals and pictures from various Ebay auctions made clear that this is not just a transmitter tester but actually a full fledged spectrum analyser with signal analysis features bolted on.


I'm pretty stoked about this buy. It seems several Korean Ebay sellers are unloading a big stack of these machines and their going price is around $1400 each including a 14 day warranty. Does that sound right? A spectrum analyser with USB, LAN, big 8.4" touch screen and 13GHz bandwidth for $1400 not in 'for parts' condition? I guess it does... Now someone probably chimes in and says these machine crash and burn all the time but until then I'm confident it will be fine just as my current and previous Advantest spectrum analysers.

Very interesting! Are you going to start a thread in test equipment about your progress with this one? I'd really like to follow that, since I've never owned a working spectrum analyzer, or even used one, I'd like to, and this price range is something I could stretch to.

Years ago I acquired a couple of very old HP 141T frames, various plugins, and the manuals. Thinking I'd get them working as a learning experience and I could live with the old no-processor style. But that was a bit too ambitious for someone with zero RF experience and many other time sinks.

Ha funny - I could afford one if I sell a couple of my GRC-106 radio sets. But, one obstacle to selling them is that I need a known-good spectrum analyzer/radio test set to check results of my unskilled antique radio refurbishing attempts. Classic chicken and egg problem.

[razberik]

Now you are obliged to do detailed teardown !

I'll do a partial teardown because no way I'm going to open or even disconnect the RF moduls if I don't have to!

That's true, AFAIK you shouldn't manipulate with SMA connector with signal more than 4GHz.
Yeah I look forward to teardown, I love these Advantests. I have R3361A and I like it a lot.

[TerraHertz]

Not test equipment, but a pile of networking gear for free. Mostly 10/100 switches, some fiber ports.
After blowing the dust out of these, I think my yard ground level is a little higher.

[Ice-Tea]

Oh, you know, I may have picked up a thing or two yesterday...

TDS784D   2   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS784D   2   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS580D   2   4CH 1Ghz
TDS684B   2   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS684B   1   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS684A   1   4CH 1GHz
TDS644B   2   4Ch 500MHz
TDS754D/754A   2   4Ch 500MHz
TDS744A   1   4Ch 500MHz
TDS820   1   2Ch 6GHz
TDS684B   1   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS6604   1   4Ch 6GHz 20GS
TDS 8000   2   
TDS7104   1   4Ch 1GHz
TDS5054   1   
TDS8000B   1   
VM5000   1   
LeCroy SDA 6020   1   
LeCroy SDA 100G   1   
LeCroy 574AL   2   4Ch 1Ghz
Lecroy 9210   1   
LeCroy LT344   1   
LeCroy DA1855APR2   1   
Yokagawa DL9240L   1   4Ch 1.5GHz
Keitley 238   1   
Keitley 236   1   
Wandel & Goltermann   1   
HP 8664A   2   
HP 1682AD   1   LA
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser


Some need a bit or a lot of TLC but I'm guessing for the next few days I may be the "Host With The Most" 

[nctnico]

@Ice-tea: that is a huge haul! What are you going to do with all of that?

[AF6LJ]

All I can say is WoW

[bingo600]

That's a an impressive pickup, wouldn't even fit in my car.
Is it yours for private use ?

/Bingo

[svens]

*drools*

[TAMHAN]

Ice-Tea: if you end up with a spare Acq board for a TDS754D (aka 784D) and want to sell, chant a song

[pascal_sweden]

I see that you are from Belgium, my home country.

Where about in Belgium are you based?

Do these scopes come from a university? Which one? Or where do they originate from?

When was the last time they were calibrated? Do they come with a calibration tag?

Are you selling them off through Ebay or are you keeping all of them?

Will you subject them to a basic test before you sell them off?

I might be interested to get one for a friend in Belgium, that is setting up a hobby electronics lab,
depending on the condition and the asking price

Oh, you know, I may have picked up a thing or two yesterday...

TDS784D   2   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS784D   2   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS580D   2   4CH 1Ghz
TDS684B   2   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS684B   1   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS684A   1   4CH 1GHz
TDS644B   2   4Ch 500MHz
TDS754D/754A   2   4Ch 500MHz
TDS744A   1   4Ch 500MHz
TDS820   1   2Ch 6GHz
TDS684B   1   4Ch 1Ghz
TDS6604   1   4Ch 6GHz 20GS
TDS 8000   2   
TDS7104   1   4Ch 1GHz
TDS5054   1   
TDS8000B   1   
VM5000   1   
LeCroy SDA 6020   1   
LeCroy SDA 100G   1   
LeCroy 574AL   2   4Ch 1Ghz
Lecroy 9210   1   
LeCroy LT344   1   
LeCroy DA1855APR2   1   
Yokagawa DL9240L   1   4Ch 1.5GHz
Keitley 238   1   
Keitley 236   1   
Wandel & Goltermann   1   
HP 8664A   2   
HP 1682AD   1   LA
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser
Wavecrest SIA-300   1   SI analyser


Some need a bit or a lot of TLC but I'm guessing for the next few days I may be the "Host With The Most" 

[Ice-Tea]

Well, I'll be selling them off, either here on the forum, eBay, to contacts etc.etc. Bought them at an auction in the US, surplus lab equipment (or bankruptcy?  ) from WD (well they are not bankrupt  ) and Celestica.

If past experiences are anything to go by, these come from big companies with quality handbooks so they probably were calibrated yearly untill they were taken out of rotation. Which may be 5+ years ago.

I test unit for basic functionality (ie does it display a waveform) and run all the selftests available. Other stuff on request and if I can.

[nctnico]

Hear me chanting out loud: "I don't need more equipment I don't need more equipment I don't need more equipment I don't need more equipment I don't ne...."

[nctnico]

Ssssst!! quiet!

[Ice-Tea]

Hear me chanting out loud: "I don't need more equipment I don't need more equipment I don't need more equipment I don't need more equipment I don't ne...."

There's always room for one more, isn't there?

Would you like me to add some juicy, sexy descriptions? Like "Sampling-scope bandwidth hits 100 GHz at
10M samples/sec"?