Path: Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:14:47 +0000 From: John Larkin Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair Subject: Re: Favourite Test Equipment Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:13:07 -0700 Organization: Highland Tech Reply-To: xx@yy.com Message-ID: References: <9k7j0jlnbhs8qfg5m17pium0835meean83@4ax.com> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 3.1/32.783 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Lines: 99 X-Trace: sv3-k3HgPjFzTq5oCeiDKsam+evZ+b//xaYeQtqMzxZQ+Sn89qOfxjnmm/IvHv6ahd/uNwP7J2Pd2OoUQFA!tPYWKxHePSl6dRgvHsHkEP8RWMJscE2XnYCXzMTo/riynC3ylYTNnDE5eADrvv0gwsk2BObOQ9cr!wC2HAA== X-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/abuse.html X-DMCA-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 6034 On Fri, 05 Apr 2024 07:49:30 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote: >On a sunny day (Thu, 4 Apr 2024 11:56:23 -0000 (UTC)) it happened Phil Hobbs > wrote in >: > >>Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund wrote: >>> 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 channel 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. >>> >>> >> >>It’s true that there are a lot of relatively undemanding jobs in >>electronics. You can get on fine with a 200-MHz scope if all you’re doing >>is PIC and Pi and ham radio and analog TV. > >Bull, >I have been using my Trio 10 MHz dual channel for digital TV too >see > https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/raspberry_pi_dvb-s_transmitter/ >GHz output.. > >Its is about UNDERSTANDING the systems >You cannot repair a TV set in a short time if you do not UNDERSTAND every part of the circuit and its function, the whole system >neither with a 10 MHz or with a 10 GHz scope. >Fault finding had been my job most of the time, sometimes with 'the show must go on' >or rocket must launch or whatever. Does anyone still repair TVs? TV repair shops used to be common but seem to be gone now. TVs are insanely cheap and reliable now. I suspect that a failure under an over-priced "extended warranty" gets you a replacement. Nobody makes schematics available now, and a TV is full of exotic custom chips.