Which is your favorite piece of Test Equipment?

[Fried Chicken]

And what's its story?

For me it's hands down my Hioki Multimeter:



I got it years and years ago, and it's the first time I dropped "significant" money on a piece of test equipment.  I got it in a kit with a clamp meter, AC voltage detector pen, and non-contact IR thermometer.  Of those only the AC detector pen is worth writing home about, but the star of the show is easily the little Hioki.  I got the kit intending to resell it and make money, but I quickly found myself constantly using the multimeter.... CONSTANTLY.  The idea of reselling it to make money quickly got scrapped.  Pro tip: if trying to make money reselling stuff, don't buy stuff you could potentially want/need.

The unit does this affectionate beeping while acquiring a signal that hioki just nailed perfectly.  I'm sure in the manual it describes what the beeping indicates.  I've never looked it up, but while using it I just know when I'm on the thing I'm testing, and when there's a readout.  I just know.  Its continuity is faster than any scope I've ever tested.  The word "instant" is thrown around a lot, but this one is really "instant".

It recognizes my clumsiness somehow perfectly and has an auto-power-save that's somehow never gotten in my way, but always works when I need it to; when I've left it on and forgotten about it, then go back and see "APS" on the display.  One click in any direction and it's instantly back.  Hioki just nailed it.  Truly.  It's on its original battery and still has 2 out of 3 bars of battery.  This is after half a decade.  Wow.

The test leads are also somehow perfect.  Their material is great, but especially the 600v tip covers click on and off so nicely, they just feel right, and I keep them on for 99% of my probing.

The whole thing has been through the ringer.  The display is covered in lacquer overspray b/c it lives in my garage.  Its only black mark is Hioki sticking the finger to 3rd party repair/calibration.  No calibration manuals, no service manuals, no nothing published.  The instruction manual even says "3rd party repairs not possible" or something like that.  It's for that reason my next meter will probably be a Fluke.  I wish I'd gotten the version with direct current measurement, but I've never found myself needing that feature.

None of this takes away from my other pieces of test equipment, including those you see in the background on the bench, this Hioki was just first and has stood the test of time.

What's your personal favorite piece of test equipment?  What's its story?

[Fried Chicken]

I guess nobody loves their test equipment.... 

[tautech]

SVA1032X

[KungFuJosh]

I guess nobody loves their test equipment.... 

It's not that easy to choose. Besides, if the TEAS is strong enough, it might be the gear you're getting next. 😉

[nctnico]

Tough question... I'm gravitating towards my Tektronix TLA715 logic analyser because it is so very powerful in finding rare problems and it is a piece of quality gear from Tektronix. Unfortunately it hasn't seen much use the last couple of years.

[joeqsmith]

Homemade power supply with remote RS-232 control/readback
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/why-many-diyers-want-a-30-volt-bench-psu/msg2104888/#msg2104888

Homemade power ARB with recording and PC interface.  None of that 50 ohm rubbish.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/frequency-down-converter-to-extend-scopes-range/msg3047440/#msg3047440

[David Hess]

My favorite piece of test gear is a Tektronix 2232 combination analog and digital storage oscilloscope.

[coppercone2]

34401a

[Someone]

It recognizes my clumsiness somehow perfectly and has an auto-power-save that's somehow never gotten in my way, but always works when I need it to; when I've left it on and forgotten about it, then go back and see "APS" on the display.  One click in any direction and it's instantly back.  Hioki just nailed it.  Truly.  It's on its original battery and still has 2 out of 3 bars of battery.  This is after half a decade.  Wow.

Winning! The little things which you don't notice until they get in the way.

[KE5FX]

Tough question... I'm gravitating towards my Tektronix TLA715 logic analyser because it is so very powerful in finding rare problems and it is a piece of quality gear from Tektronix. Unfortunately it hasn't seen much use the last couple of years.

For me, any day that involves the use of a logic analyzer is probably not a good day.  Most likely, it started to suck in the morning, or sometime the day before, and didn't get any better.    So that brings some unjustified prejudice to the question.

Many boxes within arm's reach could qualify as a favorite, though.  Almost all of them say "HP" on the front, with a date code circa 1990 or earlier.  Not all, but most.

[purplxed]

For me I think it'd have to be my Fluke 6690, lots of awesome functionality packed into a small package. I know some consider it sacrilege to say, but I prefer it over my Agilent 53131A  .

[bdunham7]

My favorites are all ones that I've repaired myself, or in some cases salvaged from junk.  I think this is still my current "favorite".

[vmax]

It must be a second-hand, repaired, low-cost or DIY device, preferably fully utilized, rather than a brand new one with far more functions than needed.

[tautech]

It must be a second-hand, repaired, low-cost or DIY device, preferably fully utilized, rather than a brand new one with far more functions I can grow into than when needed.

FTFY.

[AVGresponding]

Mine is a powerful mixed signal analysis system, with integrated thermal, optical, and acoustic sensors (sadly, some bw degradation has occurred over the years)

[Smokey]

hmm.. Favorite..  which ever piece of equipment is doing the best job at solving whatever problem I happen to be working on in that moment?  I know that's cheating.

I will say that the piece of equipment that is the best value for what I paid for it is probably an HP6632B, which I routinely use as both a pretty good power supply and a pretty good load.  That thing does get employee of the month fairly often.

[Aldo22]

I haven't been buying test equipment for that long, but I've had one device for at least 15 years and I wouldn't want to be without it for one reason:
It's probably unbeatable as a continuity tester.
My BT-22 (aka UT123).
As a continuity tester, it has a reasonably loud beep plus an LED.
The LED can take two colors.
Green and beep: < 30 Ohm
Red without beep: 30-420 Ohm

The response time was measured as 15ms (not by me).
I measured the full cycle (acoustic) myself and came up with 13Hz.
So you can test 13 connections per second (Turbo leads recommended). 

[H713]

HP 3325B and HP 8657B. Can't pick one or the other since they cover different frequency ranges and uses, but they're the best general-purpose signal generators I've ever used. Every so often I get to play around with a super-modern Keysight or Tektronix arbitrary waveform generator, and it doesn't make me want to run out and buy one for myself.

HP knew better than anyone else how to make user-friendly test equipment. Good feature set, good performance, and a good user interface.

[mankan]

HP8753D 6GHz VNA, use it a lot, also spent much time on repairs as well. Will soon receive Gotek floppy upgrade.

[kblue]

Would be my THS720A (modded to be a 720P for more useful features). It's quite useful ... the only thing missing would be 'Amps'.

[BILLPOD]

DANG, I wrote up a rather lengthy description of my favorite piece of test gear; then I clicked on 'Post' and got a pop-up, in red, that there have been 3 replies since I wrote mine,
which didn't seem to matter to me, so I clicked on 'Post' again, and my write up DISAPPEARED!!  WTF!!!!  does anyone know where my post may be hiding? 
So disheartening. :'(

[KungFuJosh]

Okay, fine I'll play. It's a toss up between my FUtracer vacuum tube curve tracer / tester and my Hioki IM3570.

[Fried Chicken]

DANG, I wrote up a rather lengthy description of my favorite piece of test gear; then I clicked on 'Post' and got a pop-up, in red, that there have been 3 replies since I wrote mine,
which didn't seem to matter to me, so I clicked on 'Post' again, and my write up DISAPPEARED!!  WTF!!!!  does anyone know where my post may be hiding? 
So disheartening. :'(

That's happened more than a few times to me, moreso in the "old days" when computers were more ruthless.
Damn that sucks to hear.  I've adtoped the happut of doing ctrl + a and ctrl + c before posting b/c of how many times I've gotten screwed like this.  Sometimes I'll even write long posts in a text editor, saving as I go.

Damn.

[themadhippy]

Eyes,ears, nose and fingers,no batterys need and they often lead you to the fault rather rapidly

[gdewitte]

Chex-Zit Continuity Tester LS-57-500 (https://www.grisk.com/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/Chex-Zit%20LS-57-500.pdf). I've had one for a bazillion years (mine is labeled "SODER-WICK ELECTRONIC TESTER").