Products > Test Equipment

Does old test equipment really ever become truly obsolete?

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David Hess:

--- Quote from: G0HZU on May 24, 2024, 08:22:58 pm ---I still have my first scope here (Tek 585) and I think it is over 60 years old and it still worked the last time I powered it up. I would class this scope as obsolete but I'm sure there are plenty of happy 5xx series scope users still out there.
--- End quote ---

The 547 held on for many more years after it was declared obsolete by Tektronix because it was their fastest oscilloscope that lacked a scan expansion mesh, which allowed it to display signal details which were not visible on later or faster instruments.

I have a Tektronix 545A but would only use it as a last resort, or if I needed a space heater.  My 547 does at least have the virtue of the best possible screen clarity, and it really shows.


--- Quote from: coppercone2 on May 24, 2024, 10:50:16 pm ---historgrams and graphs are open to interpretation and no one can make a decision with that.causes confusion
--- End quote ---

I have been looking for a bench multimeter that can calculate standard deviation, but it has to be over a specific period of time or a specific number of samples to be useful.  Right now I do it manually on my calculator.


--- Quote from: DimitriP on May 24, 2024, 11:04:24 pm ---
--- Quote ---ancient 6.5 digit HP / Agilent DMM with little features and a crappy VFD or LCD display
--- End quote ---

HP /Agilent 6.5 digit display ARE  the "features".
--- End quote ---

I consider OLED displays to be an "anti-feature".

DimitriP:

--- Quote ---I consider OLED displays to be an "anti-feature".
--- End quote ---
OLED is not  "ancient" enough  :)


--- Quote ---I have been looking for a bench multimeter that can calculate standard deviation, but it has to be over a specific period of time or a specific number of samples to be useful
--- End quote ---

I pushed the STD DEV button on my ancient 5335a with Voltmeter option installed and a number showed up , eventually :)

shabaz:

--- Quote from: David Hess on May 25, 2024, 12:00:08 am ---I have been looking for a bench multimeter that can calculate standard deviation..

--- End quote ---
Not an exact match at all, but I thought I'd give it a bash with a Bluetooth handheld multimeter (screenshot attached).

The new code is just sitting on my local PC, I've not committed the standard deviation code to the web (mobile/desktop) app yet, but can do that if required.

I'm not very good at web apps, so I find it a bit of a struggle. SCPI + Python etc would have been far easier but that handheld device doesn't support that. Also, being a typical handheld device, it doesn't have a very fast update rate, so stats performance is not great; for instance 20 samples takes about 10 seconds.

The MP730624 multimeter I used is some Uni-T rebranded model I believe.

nctnico:

--- Quote from: David Hess on May 25, 2024, 12:00:08 am ---I have been looking for a bench multimeter that can calculate standard deviation, but it has to be over a specific period of time or a specific number of samples to be useful.  Right now I do it manually on my calculator.

--- End quote ---
I'm looking at getting a UNI-T UT8805E bench DMM which can do that. It supports measuring a specific number of samples and calculating the standard deviation. But I'm sure modern day bench DMMs from Tektronix and Keysight have a similar feature as Uni-t must have copied the idea from somewhere.

pqass:

--- Quote from: nctnico on May 25, 2024, 10:18:01 am ---
--- Quote from: David Hess on May 25, 2024, 12:00:08 am ---I have been looking for a bench multimeter that can calculate standard deviation, but it has to be over a specific period of time or a specific number of samples to be useful.  Right now I do it manually on my calculator.

--- End quote ---
I'm looking at getting a UNI-T UT8805E bench DMM which can do that. It supports measuring a specific number of samples and calculating the standard deviation. But I'm sure modern day bench DMMs from Tektronix and Keysight have a similar feature as Uni-t must have copied the idea from somewhere.

--- End quote ---

The HP 3456A from 1981 can do this.  It can be had for about $250 on eBay and has a lovely LED display.
Enter the number of samples, delay between samples, and it will produce min, max, mean, and variance after a single trigger button press.
You'll have to √variance yourself for std dev though.

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