What's on your test bench?
in [Design]
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From: Phil O. Sopher on 11 Nov 2009 07:13 Over a 40 year period of interest, I've gathered some test equipment, AF Genny, RF Genny, Freq Counter, High Impedance Voltmeter, Wheatstone Bridge, Oscilloscope. None of these is particularly small and all are at least a 6" cube. It seems to me that the same functionality could be achieved these days with perhaps just a few inches of bench space, but, would it be of any use? The eqpt I gathered together dates very much from the days of designing circuitry with individual componenents (R, L, C, BJT) and offers test and validation at that level, but nowadays we don't work at that level (even op amps have been around for that 40 year period). So, what do you have on your test bench these days, how big is it, did you design it yourself, and what would you recommend to the budding circuit designer of today who isn't in the industry and therefore does not have access to Spice or Matlab to validate their designs?
From: a7yvm109gf5d1 on 11 Nov 2009 08:38 On Nov 11, 7:13 am, "Phil O. Sopher" <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > Over a 40 year period of interest, I've gathered some > test equipment, AF Genny, RF Genny, Freq Counter, High > Impedance Voltmeter, Wheatstone Bridge, Oscilloscope. > > None of these is particularly small and all are at least a 6" cube. > > It seems to me that the same functionality could be achieved > these days with perhaps just a few inches of bench space, but, > would it be of any use? > > The eqpt I gathered together dates very much from the days of > designing circuitry with individual componenents (R, L, C, BJT) > and offers test and validation at that level, but nowadays we don't > work at that level (even op amps have been around for that 40 year > period). True, I design at the "specify a function, go to Digikey" level. > So, what do you have on your test bench these days, how big is it, Tektronix 547 with 15 plugins: Dual and quad input amps, differential amp, spectrum analyzers from audio to 10GHz. (Huge) HP5316 counters (medium) GPS disciplined 10MHz OCXO. (medium, needs antenna) USB logic analyzer, Rigol 100MHz scope (small) > did you design it yourself, and what would you recommend to the > budding circuit designer of today who isn't in the industry and therefore > does not have access to Spice or Matlab to validate their designs? What? http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/ltspice.jsp http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ OK, so that's not really Matlab, but it's all I could think of in my present "booting consciousness" state.
From: Phil Hobbs on 11 Nov 2009 08:40 Phil O. Sopher wrote: > Over a 40 year period of interest, I've gathered some > test equipment, AF Genny, RF Genny, Freq Counter, High > Impedance Voltmeter, Wheatstone Bridge, Oscilloscope. > > None of these is particularly small and all are at least a 6" cube. > > It seems to me that the same functionality could be achieved > these days with perhaps just a few inches of bench space, but, > would it be of any use? > > The eqpt I gathered together dates very much from the days of > designing circuitry with individual componenents (R, L, C, BJT) > and offers test and validation at that level, but nowadays we don't > work at that level (even op amps have been around for that 40 year > period). > > So, what do you have on your test bench these days, how big is it, > did you design it yourself, and what would you recommend to the > budding circuit designer of today who isn't in the industry and therefore > does not have access to Spice or Matlab to validate their designs? > > > LTSpice is free, and so is Gnu Octave. Why doesn't the budding designer download a copy of each? I have one 19-inch rack nearly full of aged-to-perfection high end HP and Tek gear. Not counting the Tek 11802 sampling scope (which is a special case) I paid about 2.5 cents on the dollar for it. (See the list I posted here on October 1st.) If the budding designer can lay off beer for a month, he can have a good quality analog scope, +- variable power supply, pulse generator, DMM, and temperature-controlled soldering iron, courtesy of eBay. I'd sure have learned faster if I'd had all that stuff as a kid. Cheers Phil Hobbs -- Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net
From: JW on 11 Nov 2009 09:54 On Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:13:49 -0000 "Phil O. Sopher" <invalid(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in Message id: <hde9q4$t98$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>: >So, what do you have on your test bench these days, how big is it, >did you design it yourself, and what would you recommend to the >budding circuit designer of today who isn't in the industry and therefore >does not have access to Spice or Matlab to validate their designs? At home: Lecroy 9374M scope Keithley 2000 DMM HP 5385A opt 004 counter Agilent 6643 power supply HP 8656B General Radio resistor decade box Other than the decade box, all bought defective on Ebay and repaired by myself. At Job #1 Agilent 54810A scope Valhalla 2701B DC calibrator HP 745C AC calibrator Fluke 45 DMM Philips PM 2534 DMM Some crappy old B&K power supply Fluke 9100 and various pods At job #2 Lecroy 9354L scope Keithley 2010 DMM Kiksui 300W electronic load HP 437 Power meter HP 8350A generator with various plug-ins EIP 545 counter EDC MV106 voltage standard. Amrel +-30V 3A power supply (forget model #) HP 5005 signature analyzer Bob Parker's blue ESR meter Don't really design anything, I'm a test equipment repair technician.
From: MooseFET on 11 Nov 2009 10:00
On Nov 11, 4:13 am, "Phil O. Sopher" <inva...(a)invalid.invalid> wrote: > Over a 40 year period of interest, I've gathered some > test equipment, AF Genny, RF Genny, Freq Counter, High > Impedance Voltmeter, Wheatstone Bridge, Oscilloscope. > > None of these is particularly small and all are at least a 6" cube. > > It seems to me that the same functionality could be achieved > these days with perhaps just a few inches of bench space, but, > would it be of any use? > > The eqpt I gathered together dates very much from the days of > designing circuitry with individual componenents (R, L, C, BJT) > and offers test and validation at that level, but nowadays we don't > work at that level (even op amps have been around for that 40 year > period). > > So, what do you have on your test bench these days, how big is it, > did you design it yourself, and what would you recommend to the > budding circuit designer of today who isn't in the industry and therefore > does not have access to Spice or Matlab to validate their designs? Do we also count the floor near the test bench? On the bench I have: A Tek digital phosphor scope and an old-old Philips scope that is only good for 25 MHz. Both are connected to the system being developed. I need to watch signals in two unrelated time domains. There is a Fluke 45(IIRC) DVM with RS-232 output that I can record on the PC. I need to monitor a DC voltage over the time frame of hours and I don't want to do all that writing. The PC has 4 RS-232 ports. Two of them run to the system. (Not counting the Fluke) Beside the PC is a laptop that is currently not in use but its serial port is the reason it is sitting there. The power supply is a B&K. On the floor is a shield can the size of a modest water heater. Filed away in a cabinet is a bunch of stuff but one that comes to mind is a calibrated hair drier. The temperature of the air it puts out is just about exactly 60C. |