Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!reader5.news.weretis.net!news.solani.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jan Panteltje Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair Subject: Re: Favourite Test Equipment Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2024 11:44:57 GMT Message-ID: References: <9k7j0jlnbhs8qfg5m17pium0835meean83@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2024 11:44:57 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: solani.org; logging-data="142438"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@news.solani.org" User-Agent: NewsFleX-1.5.7.5 (Linux-5.15.32-v7l+) Cancel-Lock: sha1:hrmZ/OWIJfrOFht1EuObjTrqrc8= X-Newsreader-location: NewsFleX-1.5.7.5 (c) 'LIGHTSPEED' off line news reader for the Linux platform NewsFleX homepage: http://www.panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/ and ftp download ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/system/news/readers/ X-User-ID: eJwFwQkBwDAIA0BL/LRyUkb8S9hdemlNR2VFMhkCPSfVPsVmXWkICLyQ5C5W3vo0npsfqSBty8fow/B7f1jFFds= Bytes: 6044 Lines: 87 On a sunny day (Thu, 4 Apr 2024 11:55:40 +0200) it happened Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund wrote in : >On 01-04-2024 09:01, Jan Panteltje wrote: >> On a sunny day (Sun, 31 Mar 2024 18:41:18 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom >> wrote in <9k7j0jlnbhs8qfg5m17pium0835meean83@4ax.com>: >> >>> Hi all, >>> >>> I'm starting to get a bit fed up with having my test equipment blow up >>> just when it's needed. This is the drawback with vintage gear; if it's >>> not used frequently then it can go *bang* the next time you switch it >>> on. It makes for good practice in repairing stuff, but wastes a lot of >>> time which could be better spent doing other things. >>> I think it's time I modernised my test gear. I was just wondering if >>> anyone has any recommendations they can share. Is there a particular >>> piece of test equipment you couldn't live without? Something you're >>> particularly impressed with? I'd be interested to know so I can >>> perhaps acquire said item and thereby reduce the number of explosions >>> I experience. >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> CD. >> >> My 10 MHz Trio dual trace analog scope is from 1979 or there about, I blew up a channal once myself in the first week >> when I accidently touched a booster diode in a TV I was repairing with it, fixed it locating the problem with the other >> channel. >> Later I cracked the graticule when a soldering station fell on it from the table (scope stands on the ground) >> Made a new graticule. >> So, and still working perfectly, OK for all things I build with micros. >> For RF to about 1.6 GHz I use RTL_SDR USB sticks and the spectrum analyzer I wrote. >> and for AC DC measurements I have some made in China digital meters and an analog one. >> also a Voltcraft clamp-on meter for current when you do not - or cannot interrupt things with the meter impedance. >> Also have a Voltcraft soldering station. >> Blew up one of my digital meters a while back (volts on the resistance scale) but fixed it again (replaced resistor). >> Many other test equipment I designed and build, like amplifiers LF and RF, SWR meter, radiation meters, gamma spectrometer, >> GHz stuff for satelite, transmitters low and very high power, what not, >> a frequency converter to use the RTL-SDR sticks and so the spectrum analyzer on higher and lower frequencies. >> Have a SARK100 SWR analyzer too. >> Things last forever here... >> Scope used on a regular basis.. >> RTL-SDR stick 24/7. >> Digital meters used every day. >> Use my self designed lab power supply every day.. >> What more do you need? >> Learn to use the stuff, understand what's important, and that is it >> When I started in electronics as a kid I did not even _have_ a meter, still stuff worked. >> Build my own scope at some point back then when I somehow got the parts >> Not much pocket mony as a kid. >> UNDERSTAND your systems, what electrons do. >> Showing of with boat anchors may impress people, especially the clueless... >> But it does not help you one bit. >> Anything with an accuracy better than 1 percent in most cases is just like apes screaming load trying to impress other apes. >> > >Very true about specifically the 1% statement. Sidebar, at an earlier >employment, we needed to equip a new lab. Guys wanted GHz scopes. When >asked if the ever looked at edges faster than 1ns, no one did. When a kid you could test if the 4.5 V battery was empty with your tongue (nowadays likely forbidden to do that ;-) It is all relative In the frequency domain the rtl-sdr sticks I have are 1 ppm. I do have a 10 MHz Rubidium frequency reference, was cheap, from ebay that I can use for frequency stuff so as to lock the xtal oscillator in my satellite LNB that has around 10 GHz in and 1 GHz out, into that RTL-SDR stick, was good enough for SSB reception (so a few hundred Hz accuracy) on QO100 https://panteltje.nl/pub/octagon_twin_LNB_OTLSO_inside_RT320M_PLL_IMG_6538.JPG replaced that crystal in the LNB on the right by 24 Mhz external reference locked to the 10 MHz Rubidium reference https://panteltje.nl/pub/ethernet_controlled_LNB_reference_cicuit_diagram_IMG_6848.JPG about 1 GHz LNB output to the rtl-sdr stick, so now have a 10 GHz spectrum analyzer.. few Hz precision... Even without the Rubidium lock: https://panteltje.nl/pub/even_cheap_LNBs_can_receive_ESHAIL2_IMG_6775.JPG Cost, a few Euro, cheap LNBs are 5 dollar on ebay, but have no xtal oscillator but some ceramic resonator so drift a lot, too much for SSB, but still useful for watching spectra... signal generator: https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/download.html#freq_pi frequency counter; https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/pic/freq_pic/index.html cost < 10 Euro Its easy,..