Strange swedish lab equipment.

[Boyfinn]

A while ago my former teacher gave me this:


I've wondered the exact use of it ever since.
I know that the right side works as a multimeter, But i have no idea what the left side does.
For me it looks like a somesort of signal generator or a stroboscope (without the strobe). I've tried researching the name "Esselte Studium" And all i found was a wikipedia article written in swedish describing a swedish university.
It must be old(ish) due to the nixie tubes displaying the digits.

I also checked the insides and i was surprised how clean it was:


But anyways, If anyone knows what the left side is used for please let me know.

[SeanB]

Probably a counter/timer unit on the left, probably used with the DVM side to display the input voltage using a simple ramp converter to display the multimeter side outputs.

I would guess it was either a classroom unit for students to learn about electronics and logic.

[wiss]

Esselte (SLT spoken out in Swedish): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esselte
Esselte Studium published educational literature (primarily)

Did you find any links regarding the hardware?

I've trashed lots of simple counters the last years, all rather similar to this one. At the physics department they were used to measure the time it takes for a rock to fall, and similar stuff. (I work at the physics department of a Swedish uni, I have not seen this model at work)

[Boyfinn]

Did you find any links regarding the hardware?

Nope, I haven't found anything about it. Not even images.
Theres also a microphone attachment, which is broken and i can't seem to find it.
Also i remember having a simillarily orange coloured strobe somewhere, But im not sure if its compatible with this.

[German_EE]

Timer for an athletics track?

[wiss]

Just realized: the text on the front is english and german, not swedish. This is just a relabelled device, probably made in germany. Are there any text on the circuit-boards?

[lausvi]

I have two very similar Esselte Studium counters (half-height compared to the pic, but otherwise identical style and colour scheme etc.), both given to me as faulty. One has Nixie- tubes, other has 7-segment LED-displays. The connectivity looks very similar, bunch of DINs on front panel.

One similarily styled accessory (a Geiger-sensor PSU box) I once had a look was dated JAN 1979 (sticker inside) so I presume this was a late 70's/early-80's series of school measurement instruments.

I have seen these used with Geiger- sensors to measure the number of clicks within a specified time (TIMER SEC. in pictured unit). The system included a counter, a Geiger-sensor with it's PSU box and an external speaker. The connectors on the left let you connect different kind of sensors and an external start/stop- signal.

If yours has a multimeter functionality, that would be actually quite nice as a bench meter unit. (I presume that if you select "DIGITAL" the display will show the measurments from the multimeter-side). Don't know how much use the counter would be, though.

[HKJ]

It could be from the Danish company called Impo, they made measuring equipment for education. The design looks like the way they made equipment.

It looks like they still exist: http://www.impo.dk/dk/produkter/