Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Yep no Megazoom if just I guess because with 2GS/s sampling, 10 times more than a Megazoom, it would have required too much memory for the day, and more importantly I guess so much ASIC performance that it would have been either cost prohibitive even for high end HP stuff customers, if even at all technically achievable at the time.

That's where I will concede the modern scopes a clear advantage. Technology/performance has improved to the point where you can have both high BW / sampling rate, and deep memory at the same time, and you can set the trade-off between the two on the fly as you require, to suit the job at hand as best as possible. High time resolution versus high refresh rate to find rare events.

That's the main selling point to me, if I were to ever be in a position to be able to spend money on a modern scope.
That, then next selling point to me is the large wide aspect ratio screens that give you a lot more real estate to see your signals.

Same exact gripe I have about the Tek TDS2x0... yeah, sure it has allegedly 1GS/s rate... but 2.5Kpts depth. Utterly useless.

My 54600A has almost twice that and only 200MS/s rate... that is a much better match, but it is still under the bench rather than on it.

mnem

[mnementh]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

Looks like somebelly already glommed it. Who was it? Fess up! 

mnem
"Oh my... here come those dear, sweet again..."

[med6753]

Yep, they are not answering to my email anymore hehe. I might have another solution though. I filled their form and pretty sure it's going to pass now

I guess they didn't like "retired" for company name. 

Add this to the paperwork. 

[mnementh]

So I printed the PH-163 casing. Fit's perfectly and seems relatively safe to use, but the creator neglected to mention which terminals he used. Has anyone an idea what terminals would fit the PH-163 pins? Or what terminals these are in his picture? https://3dmixers.com/m/268285-ph-163-connector-hp-oval-

McBryce.

The original listing on Thingiverse has a "Additional Parts" list: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4862134

It calls for:

•     a NEMA cable with ground (I salvaged an old monitor cable, and cut off the IEC connector)
  
•     3 female crimp receptacles (TE model 633381-1), that can be found here and here,
•     a rubber grommet (1/4 inch inside diameter), I got these, and
•     2 socket head m3 capscrews 10mm long and associated nuts

mnem
 

[Robert763]

Yep no Megazoom if just I guess because with 2GS/s sampling, 10 times more than a Megazoom, it would have required too much memory for the day, and more importantly I guess so much ASIC performance that it would have been either cost prohibitive even for high end HP stuff customers, if even at all technically achievable at the time.

That's where I will concede the modern scopes a clear advantage. Technology/performance has improved to the point where you can have both high BW / sampling rate, and deep memory at the same time, and you can set the trade-off between the two on the fly as you require, to suit the job at hand as best as possible. High time resolution versus high refresh rate to find rare events.

That's the main selling point to me, if I were to ever be in a position to be able to spend money on a modern scope.
That, then next selling point to me is the large wide aspect ratio screens that give you a lot more real estate to see your signals.

It's just a shame that most modern 'scopes have crappy, user interfaces and poor response to control inputs.

[mnementh]

Amen, brutha.

mnem

[mnementh]

Today must be "Wise Arse Response Day". 

How come I never get these memos? 

You need to set your trigger on the rising edge of the wave, not the falling edge. 

mnem
*impairing productivity since nineteen-mumblety-mumble*

[Kosmic]

Yep, they are not answering to my email anymore hehe. I might have another solution though. I filled their form and pretty sure it's going to pass now

I guess they didn't like "retired" for company name. 

Add this to the paperwork. 

Not sure if it was a problem. I think they are still willing to ship to you (thanks again by the way  ). I'm trying something different now since it would be a lot easier if they ship directly to me.

Anyway not sure why they don't answer anymore. They are all gone in vacation?

[med6753]

Yep, they are not answering to my email anymore hehe. I might have another solution though. I filled their form and pretty sure it's going to pass now

I guess they didn't like "retired" for company name. 

Add this to the paperwork. 

Not sure if it was a problem. I think they are still willing to ship to you (thanks again by the way  ). I'm trying something different now since it would be a lot easier if they ship directly to me.

Anyway not sure why they don't answer anymore. They are all gone in vacation?

No problem. But if I can help I will. 

[Atomillo]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

Looks like somebelly already glommed it. Who was it? Fess up! 

mnem
"Oh my... here come those dear, sweet again..."

I couldn't help it!

I had just received payment for two parking spots I have rented and saw the auction...
For quite some time I've searched for a GPIB controllable PSU (even if just single ended) and the scope (including 2x500MHz probes!) also seems interesting. At the moment I have no real use for it but in spite of the low memory depth it still is the highest frequency "thing" in the lab.

[mnementh]

You don't have to apologize in here, brutha! We just wanna wish you good luck! 


In Related News:



Ifni save me...

I put in a offer... the guy "countered" by reducing listing to a price that split the difference. Bastard has played this game before... 

But... it came in under a c-note all told; so I just hope his positive feedback reflects well-packed merch.

Oh, and Vince...       "Agilent - Yuckyputz!" my scaly dwagon arse!

mnem
  

[Specmaster]

Postman has just dropped off the Commodore F4902 calculator, but sadly the last digits of the 11 digit plus +/- display have segment "A" missing, which is not quite the end of the world but still annoying as when the digit displays 1 there is no real way to work out if the 1 is correct or should it be a 7 :palm

I'm leaning towards the display itself, does anyone know where such displays may be obtained from these days?

Old calculators 

Or old people who have spare components. I have a box of similar displays (some even from Commodore calculators). Can you post a picture of the display component and I'll check if I have one.

McBryce.

Here are 4 photos, 2 each of my Commodore F4902 and SR4912 displays, although they are connected differently, I think that they are the same display module, measuring 60mm x 18mm on their small PCB.

I could swap over the displays and test out that theory later.

[TERRA Operative]

Hmm, so everyone's buying scopes now hey?

Do I have to go buy another to keep up with the cool kids?

[bd139]

When was the answer to that ever no? 

[Vince]

You don't have to apologize in here, brutha! We just wanna wish you good luck! 


In Related News:



Ifni save me...

I put in a offer... the guy "countered" by reducing listing to a price that split the difference. Bastard has played this game before... 

But... it came in under a c-note all told; so I just hope his positive feedback reflects well-packed merch.

Oh, and Vince...       "Agilent - Yuckyputz!" my scaly dwagon arse!

mnem
  

Wow, congratulations Dragon !   

At that price it's basically free, amazing how the seller was dumb enough to price it this low, never mind accept an offer on it ?! 
So that means I was wrong... Ebay is not 100% filled with "professionals" trying to  screw you. Even on Ebay, even in 2022...you can still find crazy good deals !
Hmmm.... that means I must now start checking Ebay every day rather than just my local leboncoin.fr website.... OK OK....


Good deal on that one indeed. Had a quick look on Ebay US and these Agilent MSOs cost hundreds even in bad shape with broken bits and ugly yellowed plastics.

Yours looks like it's brand new, nothing missing or broken or yellowed... looks quite nice, I admit ! 
Plus the good thing is, the knobs are so ugly that 3D printed ones would actually look BETTER than the originals !
So you would be forgiven for 3DP-ing a new set of knobs ! ...

Has a cool floppy drive as well ! 

Can't wait for the unboxing and tear down....  will it come with a module at the back, which one, and if none... are your older HP modules compatible with this more modern incarnation of the scope.

Need to find a cable and grabbers for the LA now...

I notice on all the pics I see of these Agilent face-lifted HP scopes, that the CRT looks like it uses a different phosphor ? They always look a lighter shade of green I find, or it's just me ?! 


There is a trend here.... who's next going to buy on of these old MSO's ?! 

[Vince]

Yep no Megazoom if just I guess because with 2GS/s sampling, 10 times more than a Megazoom, it would have required too much memory for the day, and more importantly I guess so much ASIC performance that it would have been either cost prohibitive even for high end HP stuff customers, if even at all technically achievable at the time.

That's where I will concede the modern scopes a clear advantage. Technology/performance has improved to the point where you can have both high BW / sampling rate, and deep memory at the same time, and you can set the trade-off between the two on the fly as you require, to suit the job at hand as best as possible. High time resolution versus high refresh rate to find rare events.

That's the main selling point to me, if I were to ever be in a position to be able to spend money on a modern scope.
That, then next selling point to me is the large wide aspect ratio screens that give you a lot more real estate to see your signals.

It's just a shame that most modern 'scopes have crappy, user interfaces and poor response to control inputs.

Yes, that's the main thing that puts me off. Look and feel of the H/W par tof the UI, i.e the frontpanel and knobs etc, but also the S/W side of the UI : the way stuff is presented on the screen, and the colours used. It does not looks as clean sharp and tidy to me as the older scopes with their "ASCII" / text based user interfaces, and  a more thoughtful use of colours.

I particularly hate teh blue colours that seems to be adored by many scopes manufacturers for their menu buttons and what not. Even worse sometiems even a gradient of blue, not a solid blue. IT irritates me as umch as freaking blue LEDs in every consumer products under the sun.

At least in my old TDS scope the colours are heavily customizable if you feel the need to change them, but somehow I fear this is not possible on modern scopes... hopefully I man wrong.
If I could get  rid all the blue, get rid of gradients, and just have a black background and white menus with a fixed width font, and bright yellow for the signal traces, that would be a good start.

[bd139]

To be fair the Siglent I have is pretty responsive and well designed. It’s why I own it rather than DS1054Z…

[AVGresponding]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

That sold before I even saw your post earlier, otherwise I'd have jumped on it myself!

[BU508A]

It's just a shame that most modern 'scopes have crappy, user interfaces and poor response to control inputs.

My R&S RTB2004 has both: good and responsive UI. I cannot complain.

[Vince]

It's just a shame that most modern 'scopes have crappy, user interfaces and poor response to control inputs.

My R&S RTB2004 has both: good and responsive UI. I cannot complain.

The only reason I like modern R&S scopes so much over the competition and would fancy one, is the overall UI ( H/W and S/W) that I find less ugly, almost nice actually, well to my liking at any rate, to each their own..
I have no idea about the technical merits of their scopes, I don't expect them to be significantly better or worse than their Keysight or Tek counterparts... scopes are scopes (within a given market segment/quality), to me only the user interface makes the difference to make me like one more than the others.

[bd139]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

That sold before I even saw your post earlier, otherwise I'd have jumped on it myself!

Yep was considering it myself but I’m all over the place for the next two weeks. I’d have kept the power supply and sold the scope though 

[Neper]

You don't have to apologize in here, brutha! We just wanna wish you good luck! 


In Related News:



Ifni save me...

I put in a offer... the guy "countered" by reducing listing to a price that split the difference. Bastard has played this game before... 

But... it came in under a c-note all told; so I just hope his positive feedback reflects well-packed merch.

As we say in Germany: Huhn blind, Körner viele (Chicken blind, many grains). 

[factory]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

That sold before I even saw your post earlier, otherwise I'd have jumped on it myself!

Yep was considering it myself but I’m all over the place for the next two weeks. I’d have kept the power supply and sold the scope though 

If packed together, they will probably both arrive smashed. Hope whoever bought them contacts the seller, to advise them to pack them properly & separately. 

David

[bd139]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

That sold before I even saw your post earlier, otherwise I'd have jumped on it myself!

Yep was considering it myself but I’m all over the place for the next two weeks. I’d have kept the power supply and sold the scope though 

If packed together, they will probably both arrive smashed. Hope whoever bought them contacts the seller, to advise them to pack them properly & separately. 

David

The 3610A will be fine. The scope will be in pieces. I received a 3630A once wedged in a shoe box with tissue paper via Hermes and it was fine 

Either way it’ll be free if it’s broke.

[Atomillo]

If anyone wants this go go go go. 500Mhz scope plus Agilent PSU £180. I can’t take it due to delivery constraints.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165551587078

That sold before I even saw your post earlier, otherwise I'd have jumped on it myself!

Yep was considering it myself but I’m all over the place for the next two weeks. I’d have kept the power supply and sold the scope though 

If packed together, they will probably both arrive smashed. Hope whoever bought them contacts the seller, to advise them to pack them properly & separately. 

David

We'll see. He told me I would package everything fine. It's already sent...
I'm probably on vacation when it arrives but have a colleague who will check everything if I'm not here.