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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
Subject: Re: Favourite Test Equipment
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2024 14:52:47 +1000
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On 7/04/2024 6:39 am, Cursitor Doom wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Apr 2024 19:37:27 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, 6 Apr 2024 00:35:46 +0200, Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund
>> <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 05-04-2024 23:22, john larkin wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 5 Apr 2024 16:26:49 -0400, bitrex <user@example.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 4/5/2024 3:49 AM, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>>>>> On a sunny day (Thu, 4 Apr 2024 12:20:19 -0400) it happened bitrex
>>>>>> <user@example.net> wrote in <660ed343$0$1258343$882e4bbb@reader.netnews.com>:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My most useful old machine dollar for dollar is my 8012B pulse generator!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> <https://imgur.com/a/2GaSZVq>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nice, real components...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> $50 "not working." It was just a burned-out pilot lamp and dirty controls.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> mm 50 dollars,
>>>>>> even today with people using dollars for wallpaper,
>>>>>> buys you a nice pulse generator on ebay..
>>>>>
>>>>> It cost $1700 USD in the 1987 catalog, about $4500 equivalent today!
>>>>>
>>>>>> 555 timer works fine too
>>>>>> Or use sox in Linux for all sort of audio, including sweeps:
>>>>>>     https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/howto-sox-audio-tool-as-a-signal-generator.4242/
>>>>>> or just use a Raspberry Pi as signal generator:
>>>>>>     https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/download.html#freq_pi
>>>>
>>>> Our DDG is about $4K, addmittedly over the top for a home lab.
>>>>
>>>>      http://highlandtechnology.com/DSS/P500DS.shtml
>>>>
>>>> I love my beat-up old unit on my bench.  Timing and levels are
>>>> brutally quantitative.
>>>>
>>> I bought a Siglent DDS SDG6022X for 1300USD, 200MHz thingie. I knew
>>> forehand that it could be hacked to 500MHz, so "saved" 3000 USD for 1
>>> hours work :-)
>>>
>>> https://www.batronix.com/shop/waveform-generator/Siglent-SDG6022X.html
>>>
>>> EEVBLOG has hacking details if anyone is interested...
>>
>> We bought a few Rigol 300 MHz 4-chan scopes and insisted that they
>> throw in the 500 MHz upgrade.
>>
>> I remember when FFT was an extra-cost feature. Now it's free.
> 
> Excuse me for being a bit slow on the uptake here, but it seems to me
> that there are a *lot* of products which are fundamentally all
> manufactured to the same spec - but then deliberately crippled unless
> you pay some sort of ransom to have them 'unlocked' as it were. Would
> that be correct or am I being too cynical?

Probably. You have got to run tests to be sure that the feature works 
before you can ship it to a customer, and the tests tkae time, cost 
money and don't always work. If only a few customers want it, it makes 
sense to sell to the cheaper spec and charge the customers who are 
prepared to pay for the extra performance.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney