Bugger it, soldering the back battery into place, thought I'd just check that the Cal data was safe before disconnecting the fitted battery, screen says "uncalibrated".
Then it hit me, the solder was touching the bloody chassis as I was making the positive connection to the ram, so now I too have to get the 3478A calibrated, I fucked it
Oh well I'll continue with the battery and filter caps replacement, then look for a calibration centre near me
I think to be honest its a failing of all the more modern meters which have the software driven calibration that require a battery to retain the data. That battery will at some point need replacing before it fails and accident while replacing could erase the cal data. I would thought it might be better to use something like an EEPROM that does not requires batteries, may be newer meters do?
Bugger it, soldering the back battery into place, thought I'd just check that the Cal data was safe before disconnecting the fitted battery, screen says "uncalibrated".
Then it hit me, the solder was touching the bloody chassis as I was making the positive connection to the ram, so now I too have to get the 3478A calibrated, I fucked it
Oh well I'll continue with the battery and filter caps replacement, then look for a calibration centre near me
Oomph. This only shows that my precautions with reading the cal data via GPIB off my 3458A was a sensible thing to do, even though it proved unnecessary in the end. I'm just too prone to fucking up myself. I'm sorry for you and bd139, really.
When I do start on my 3478As, I'll hopefully remember these lessons!
I'm asking myself if it had made sense to make the batteries easily replaceable. Not much danger with corrosion and lithium cells, is there? And no need to use the cheapest holders. But maybe the designers thought that by the time a battery change was required, a re-calibration would be also due anyway ...
And with the 3458A, it's not just one battery, but three RAMs! Did they really think this instrument would be used just for about ten years? Or that desoldering/soldering them every ten years would be normal maintenance? I have the greatest respect for HP engineers, but some design decisions are questionable.
Ero-Shan, who's not the best engineer in the world
Here we go again ...
After acquiring that boat anchor I resolved to fight GAS and ignore fleabay. This worked amazingly well for two months. It wasn't too hard, even. As a result, I spent my time and money to my other hobbies. Since my rooms are full enough, I thought it would be easy to stick to it.
Then, last week, I sat in front of my computer, drinking my coffee and idly browsed the web. Nobody knows how I landed at the bay, but suddenly I was there! And then I saw it: a beautiful Philps PM2421 DMM. Reasonable price. How in all the world could I have resisted this? I'm just a weak human, after all! This DMM could not be allowed to go anywhere but my place. Isn't it understandable that I relapsed? I won the auction late Friday night at a still reasonable bid. Although I wire transferred the money within 5 minutes, that thing wasn't sent until Thursday and still hasn't arrived.
I found a good scan of the manual, and looking at the schematics, it suddenly occurred to me why I might have that sweet spot for Philips.
Our first radio was a Philips Philetta, bought a year before I was born. I remember looking through the perforated cardboard back panel as a kid and being mesmerized by the magical glow of the valves and the mysteries of its operation.
Our first record player was a Philips.
Our first TV was a Philips b&w set. We were the last in the street to own one.
With the first money that I earned myself (a holiday job), I bought a Philips EE2000 "electronics lab".
Now, looking at the schematics all this came back to me. Philips' schematics are my reference. They are just beautiful. Highly skilled draftspersons created pieces of art that really help understanding the function.
Philips may not be revered as HP, Fluke or Tektronix are. But, IMHO, they were not that far behind.
A few minutes ago I saw the DHL van in the street next to mine. Where has it gone? It ought to be in front of my house by now!
Good luck
I’m doing a kids party today for 5 year olds so no TEA for me
I'm always surprised at the number of dodgy joints you get on test gear.
On the LCD vs illumination thing earlier, I have installed the lights on my bench now, a shitty LED strip + inline switch + wall wart. Under £15 the lot.
It reflects enough light off the walls and around that it lights up all the LCDs on the shelf above (!)
Need to stick some aluminium L section in front of it to stop it shining directly in the eyes.
Not having a manual for the 101 (maybe the available 100 manual/schematics is reasonably close), I wasn't in the mood to investigate further.
For the moment, I count this as a blank.
I'm always surprised at the number of dodgy joints you get on test gear.
On the LCD vs illumination thing earlier, I have installed the lights on my bench now, a shitty LED strip + inline switch + wall wart. Under £15 the lot.
It reflects enough light off the walls and around that it lights up all the LCDs on the shelf above (!)
Need to stick some aluminium L section in front of it to stop it shining directly in the eyes.
<img>
These are “warm white” ones from here: https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=172_367&products_id=3360
Agree entirely about the colour temperature. There too much blue in the non warm ones. Does your eyes in.
Slightly worried about the noise off the cheap switcher. Will fire up my radio and have a listen later.
All hail the mighty overlords of web services!
This might be what you are looking for: https://kb8ojh.net/images/datapulse-101.pdf
Kind regards, Frederik
Edit: On a side note, what a BEAUTY! this manual cover is!
How did you find this one?
And yes, you're right, the manual cover is nice. Though the cover of the Datapulse-100 manual looks even better, IMHO.
Good luck
I’m doing a kids party today for 5 year olds so no TEA for me
These are “warm white” ones from here: https://www.bitsbox.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=172_367&products_id=3360
Agree entirely about the colour temperature. There too much blue in the non warm ones. Does your eyes in.
Slightly worried about the noise off the cheap switcher. Will fire up my radio and have a listen later.Exactly, the RGB ones might be an idea as you select a colour or mix your own using the remote control. My LEDS are proper under cabinet fittings my done got his work for me which I think are warm white but not sure as the packaging did not specify.
From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]