New universal counter recommendations?

[kb0thn]

I just recently got a Siglent SDG1025 waveform generator, per the generally positive reviews of this group. Gosh it is nice to work with as compared to my analog generator that involved hooking the scope up to it to set levels and verify that it is doing something. I think I will get a few more of the SDG1025 for my employees and other benches at my shop.

Now I am looking to update my universal counter. I have a HP 5314A. It works great. I love it. But I'd like to get something programmable that can store various configurations. And maybe some statistics and other additional features.

Are any of the high end Asian outfits making a universal counter that is decent? Most of my work is in the sub-megahertz range, so speed isn't an issue.

Thanks,

-Jim

[jpb]

Companies like Rigol and Siglent seem to add "counters" to their other products but these are rather low spec. For instance the Rigol one is 12 digits but the accuracy is around 7 digits and it works in binary rather than decimal mode so the lower digits jump around.

I have the TTi 930 which I'm happy with as it is reasonably priced, does reciprocal counting, is 10 digits, allows an external reference and can be controlled over usb. It
also doesn't stop the counting when producing a measurement so you can get a constant stream of results over usb (or on the display).

But it doesn't do statistics directly - you would need to do this on a controlling pc (easy to do if you can write your own software or are willing to copy terminal output into a spreadsheet). It also doesn't seem to talk to Windows 7 64bit - I run mine from an IBM Thinkpad running Windows XP. Also the display is not backlit so is not as easy to see as one which is.

The clock is 50MHz so the resolution is 20 nsecs but you say you are only interested in subMHz signals. At the lower end it goes down to 0.01Hz which I find useful for looking at 1pps signals from a GPS module.

There does seem to be a bit of a gap in the counter market between 6/7 digit counters which are not much better than the ones built into a lot of scopes and other instruments, and the much more sophisticated and expensive Agilent offerings. To some extent TTi fit in there.

[devanno]

Companies like Rigol and Siglent seem to add "counters" to their other products but these are rather low spec. For instance the Rigol one is 12 digits but the accuracy is around 7 digits and it works in binary rather than decimal mode so the lower digits jump around.

I have the TTi 930 which I'm happy with as it is reasonably priced, does reciprocal counting, is 10 digits, allows an external reference and can be controlled over usb. It
also doesn't stop the counting when producing a measurement so you can get a constant stream of results over usb (or on the display).

But it doesn't do statistics directly - you would need to do this on a controlling pc (easy to do if you can write your own software or are willing to copy terminal output into a spreadsheet). It also doesn't seem to talk to Windows 7 64bit - I run mine from an IBM Thinkpad running Windows XP. Also the display is not backlit so is not as easy to see as one which is.

The clock is 50MHz so the resolution is 20 nsecs but you say you are only interested in subMHz signals. At the lower end it goes down to 0.01Hz which I find useful for looking at 1pps signals from a GPS module.

There does seem to be a bit of a gap in the counter market between 6/7 digit counters which are not much better than the ones built into a lot of scopes and other instruments, and the much more sophisticated and expensive Agilent offerings. To some extent TTi fit in there.

Getting back into the study of electronics after a long hiatus, I am building a test bench for both education and design / repair of "stuff."  As you noted, the built-into other devices counters aren't always ideal, so I'm looking to add a "universal counter" to my bench.  I realize that these two are not exactly in the same range, but I'm looking at the BK Precision 1823A (which some have indicated that they're quite happy with) and the TTi TF960 (ok, so the 930 would be a better comparison, but if I'm in for that much, might as well go for a bit of gusto).  I am just curious if you or anyone here has some good insight on these?   TIA...D