Re: Where do you purchace your test equiptment these days?
- From: John Larkin <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:26:33 -0800
On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:10:26 GMT, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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>
It's so much cheaper to teach CS than real engineering. No labs, no
machinery, no test equipment, no skilled teachers. Just make each kid
buy his own laptop and aim a cheap C++droid TA at them.
John
.
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