Re: Where do you purchace your test equiptment these days?
- From: Joerg <notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:10:26 GMT
John Larkin wrote:
On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:07:08 -0500, Hawker
<Hawker{removethispart}@ashevillecommunity.org> wrote:
On 3/2/2007 4:35 PM, The digits of John Larkin's hands composed the following:
I'd go for a new Fluke dvm and a Tek color digital scope. But lots of
other stuff like power supplies and signal generators can be got cheap
on ebay. Look for a seller with a few years of history and high
feedback, and buy stuff declared to be working.
The Extech stuff looks fine too, so far.
Hfe meters are not necessary; I've never used one.
AADE's little LC meter is great, an amazing bargain. Be sure to get
the surface-mount adapter with the tiny plastic clothespin.
Thanx for the advice. I'll look into that.
As for E-bay. I am with you. Power Supplies, VARIACs, Signal Generators I try ham-fests first (because I like to touch, see and try first) and E-bay second. A 20 y/o HP Power Supply at a ham fest for $100 is usually a better quality supply than a new $1000 one one I can get anyway.
VOMS, LCRs and other things that I want accuracy on and are relatively inexpensive I usually purchase new.
The big exception is Scopes. For lab scops (like Tex 2465/2445A analog or 2440/2430A Digital or cheaper stuff even) I get them from a retired Tektronix person I know who refirbs them and sells them for an amazing price. They come calibrated and he gives me a 1 year warranty. 2465 for example tend to be $500 or so. Perhaps 1/2 my lab is furnished from tis person, when he truly retires half the engineers in North Carolina and Georgia will be at a big loss (he is in his 70s now) Unfortunately he does not get in to TDS and other nicer stuff.
My problem is I can't afford $30k for what I need. Right now I need about a 2-4 mega sample 500Mhz 4 channel with active FET probes. I can find something decent used on E-bay for $5k that meets my needs but new is way out of my price range.
The problem is my TDS 500 series (forget the name) which is all that but only 1 MS almost meets my needs, but on some things I just can't get enough resolution - esp when I am looking at the output of a 54Mhz CCD pixel. I'm not sure if I should get what I need now (2ms) or try to spring for what I might need in a few years (4ms)
Oh well Charlotte ham fest is next week ;)
Hawker
John
The Foothill College Electronic Flea Market used to be legendary
around here, but it seems like ebay has almost killed it off. It moved
to a smaller site, but it had already degraded to junky stuff.
<rant_mode>
Probably not just EBay that killed it but also the utter lack of hobbyist activity among the next generation(s). They fist-fight each other over some Wii game console and then after graduating from college they still don't have a clue how a transistor amplifier is built.
</rant_mode>
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com
.
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