First impression of the 34465A is that it's more compact than my Keithley 2000, and the display is bright, clear, and has a wide viewing angle. Nice.
Auto-ranging, on the other hand, is so much slower it's not even funny. One of the things I really like about the K2000 is that I can apply a signal, and by the time I've looked up at the meter, it's already found the correct range and showed a measurement. The 34465A is much more like a handheld meter, really quite slow, and that's disappointing. Maybe there's a setting that'll speed it up?
There's also an annoying relay that clicks away if the meter is left in high-Z voltage mode. As the inputs charge and discharge, the meter switches range and back to accommodate the instantaneous voltage. Maybe I'll just have to leave it in 10M mode instead. It's a shame, but the K2000 doesn't have this quirk either.
Any one know if the software update for the '61A will include the ability to log direct to a USB stick? That is one feature that is surprisingly missing.
Auto-ranging, on the other hand, is so much slower it's not even funny. One of the things I really like about the K2000 is that I can apply a signal, and by the time I've looked up at the meter, it's already found the correct range and showed a measurement. The 34465A is much more like a handheld meter, really quite slow, and that's disappointing. Maybe there's a setting that'll speed it up?
Really? I find that the 61A has a very similar auto-ranging speed to the 2000, I can't see why it would take longer on the 65A.
Auto-ranging, on the other hand, is so much slower it's not even funny. One of the things I really like about the K2000 is that I can apply a signal, and by the time I've looked up at the meter, it's already found the correct range and showed a measurement. The 34465A is much more like a handheld meter, really quite slow, and that's disappointing. Maybe there's a setting that'll speed it up?
Really? I find that the 61A has a very similar auto-ranging speed to the 2000, I can't see why it would take longer on the 65A.
I find this weird to. Which measurement are you autoranging? Even with relay activation, I found the 34461A immensely faster at autoranging than any HH DMM I have. And the 34465A is supposed to be even faster then the 34461A. Per the datasheet, the autoranging time in DCV is <30ms for the 34461A and the autoranging time for all measurements is < 5ms (!) for the 34465A.
Note that the measurement itself may be slow. The reset value for all 3446x series is NPLC10 and autozero ON, so by default you get a measurement time of 0.33/0.4 sec, and that's noticeable (it certainly dwarfs the autoranging time). You can put the 34465A in NPLC 1 or .2 or .02, still get near-full accuracy and blindingly fast readings.
Guys... long day at work followed by the arrival of a new toy. Of course I've been playing!
I spent a while yesterday looking for the red grabber, which I was sure should have been included in the test lead kit. I was going to give Keysight a call today to say it was missing, but having looked at the included accessories on their web site, it turns out you only get a black one (WTF?!)
On the plus side, setting it up to log to USB was dead easy and worked first time. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why anyone would pay for the MEM upgrade, when the 50,000 point limit of the standard meter doesn't apply if you're logging to a file on a USB stick. I checked this morning; 70,000 points taken at 3msec intervals, no problem at all.
Has anyone else noticed the noise from the fan? It's quiet, but quite high pitched and... whiney. Maybe it's inevitable, what with the fan being so small, but it's irritating nonetheless. Fortunately the radio drowns it out easily.
On the plus side, setting it up to log to USB was dead easy and worked first time. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why anyone would pay for the MEM upgrade, when the 50,000 point limit of the standard meter doesn't apply if you're logging to a file on a USB stick. I checked this morning; 70,000 points taken at 3msec intervals, no problem at all.
Start date:,03/10/2015,Start time:,15:09:42.910
Sample interval:,0.002000
Reading #,Reading
1,+8.80413134E+00
2,+8.80414814E+00
3,+8.80423098E+00
4,+8.80415278E+00
5,+8.80414582E+00
6,+8.80419101E+00
7,+8.80415741E+00
8,+8.80417653E+00
9,+8.80417885E+00
10,+8.80416958E+00
Start date:,03/10/2015,Start time:,15:18:38.130
Sample interval:,0.500000
Reading #,Reading
1,+8.80401932E+00
2,+8.80401939E+00
3,+8.80402039E+00
4,+8.80401911E+00
5,+8.80401959E+00
6,+8.80401877E+00
7,+8.80401866E+00
8,+8.80401888E+00
9,+8.80402165E+00
10,+8.80401964E+00
Here's a photo of with the shield in place. This is the only shield in the meter-there's not a separate one for the fan/regulator.
Here's a 10 sample log. Probes are connected to a 9V battery. Meter is set to the 10V range, acquisition time is set to 200us, and sample interval is set to 2ms, both of which are as short as I can get. If anyone knows how to sample at 1ms intervals, I'd be interested to know what I've missed.Code: [Select]Start date:,03/10/2015,Start time:,15:09:42.910
Sample interval:,0.002000
Reading #,Reading
1,+8.80413134E+00
2,+8.80414814E+00
3,+8.80423098E+00
4,+8.80415278E+00
5,+8.80414582E+00
6,+8.80419101E+00
7,+8.80415741E+00
8,+8.80417653E+00
9,+8.80417885E+00
10,+8.80416958E+00
Here's a 10 sample log. Probes are connected to a 9V battery. Meter is set to the 10V range, acquisition time is set to 200us, and sample interval is set to 2ms, both of which are as short as I can get. If anyone knows how to sample at 1ms intervals, I'd be interested to know what I've missed.
Start date:,03/10/2015,Start time:,16:29:47.790
Sample interval:,0.001000
Reading #,Reading
1,+8.80342110E+00
2,+8.80344253E+00
3,+8.80340430E+00
4,+8.80342110E+00
5,+8.80344485E+00
6,+8.80348772E+00
7,+8.80350684E+00
8,+8.80343326E+00
9,+8.80334289E+00
10,+8.80338808E+00