Seriously, Tektronix?

If I had the time I'd do it because equivalent time sampling isn't that hard to do. But I've got no time for that right now. Plus I am in California and that state is too business-hostile to have a full operations with producton, employees and sales going. I'd have to move to Texas first :-)

how fast is fast?

-Lasse

One of mine will sample at 200psec but a slower one gets built first because it is much cheaper (it's a project where 10 bucks really matter). It would not have been a serious stretch to get that towards

So, what's the oldest piece of test gear that anybody here still uses?

I have some GR decade resistor and divider boxes that must be 1960's stuff, still in use.

And an HP608 RF signal generator, but I don't use it much these days.

I also have some really old Tek scopes, 535/545/547, but don't use them any more.

Our little HP 6212A power supply is really old, and works great.

I've done more than my share of ISO training (was the first one to go through the full-banana ISO audit at IBM P'ok). The issue is the process. If the process says that thou shalt s*it in your hat...

Can't have that gear, obviously.

Measurements 59 Megacycle Meter (The best dip meter ever built AFAICT).

Keithley 405 Micro-Microammeter (100 fA full scale range, in 1964).

Universal Avometer Model 8 Mk IV (the last of the classic AVOs)

HP 200 CD audio oscillator (Not fixed yet, but I'll use it when it is).

I have a 6112A that still works beautifully. I chucked out a couple of the 3 kV ones because I could hear their transformers arcing.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Hey, I have a Measurements Model 80 sig gen.

It still works.

them any more. "

Oh, the bodybuilder models.

You know you can use them with super long probes and binoculars - I mean in case you can't lift them anymore.

Of course those explain the reason why the Tek scopemobiles were so expensive...

Think about it: Who writes the procedure for the process?

Sure. I'll just have to see if I can return this machine (or donate it) and buy another one of same type that has the feature we need enabled.

The problem was that they threw out all activation codes for firmware options. I had my credit card ready, they could have made a nice sale right there, with a bare minimum of investment on their part (about 60 seconds of their time). Beats me why large corporations shoot themselves in the foot so often.

Same here. There are some things where they break the mold and make'em no more like they used to. Kids these days (including a lot of middle-age engineers) don't even know what a dip meter is.

Then I've got some gear that I built as a teenager that I still use, hi-Z amps and stuff. My oldest piece for lab use is probably this, should be well over 100 years old now:

Rated at a whopping 150 amps. I had a lot more including a nice meter that goes with this series but donated that to the California Radio Museum.

That doesn't matter, at all. The fact is that the procedure is there and it's "worked" for a couple of decades - long before I showed up (and when it was a manufacturing location with *very* little engineering). I certainly wouldn't have written the procedure.

Because those who profit aren't those who do the work. There is good reason for bonuses based on the bottom line. The problem is that they're so often bogus in a large corporation.

I bought mine after you posted a love letter to yours. ;)

What our wives don't know, won't hurt them. Of course there's the old physicist joke:

A doctor, a lawyer, and a physicist were shooting the breeze in the bar one afternoon, and the conversation got round to whether one was better off with a wife or a girlfriend.

"A girlfriend for me" said the lawyer--"I try to stay out of divorce practice, but the scales are so stacked against men that if a wife wants to, she can take you for everything you've got and then some."

"A wife all the way, for me" said the doctor--"The crazy hours I have to keep, being pulled out of family celebrations to look after patients, a girlfriend would never put up with it."

"I really think I need both" said the physicist, ignoring the raised eyebrows of his friends--"I can tell the girlfriend I'm with the wife, and the wife I'm with the girlfriend, and then I CAN GO TO THE LAB!"

My wife thinks this is reportage. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Sure it does.

It has most likely resulted in lots of wasted Dollars.

We were always nicely rewarded for achieving good results with very modest engineering budgets. That was made possible, among other things, by resorting to vintage equipment where that made sense. And it made sense a lot of times.

Their existence says otherwise.

Since when has a mega-business worried about lots of wasted dollars? I mean, really?!

I've never seen used equipment purchased, other than perhaps something that had already been leased past where a new one would have been paid for (i.e. they paid more than 2x the original price).

We have bonuses based on the bottom line. Every FTE gets the same bonus.

What? I gave you a link. Did you really go to ISO classes?

Smart ones are, such as Walmart. Not so smart ones tend not to last too many decades.

With my clients it happens all the time. That's how many of them leave big corporations in the dust when it comes to innovation.

The most extreme cases were optical network analyzers. Due to many telco suppliers going belly up these systems could be had for pennies on the Dollar. So you could either by a new system for north of $50k or get the same kind of performance used for $1k.

When I needed a GHz scope I placed a bid during a silent auction and got one for ... all of 80 bucks.

This is on my shelf, but I only looked inside to see how they did it.

I know almost the same joke... but it goes like this, Physicist comes home, his wife meets him at the door. He smells of booze, there is lipstick on his neck, And a racing stub stuck in his jacket pocket.

"Honey, I'm sorry I'm late." he says, "Some friends stopped by, we went to the track, then stopped in a bar, and strip joint."

She looks at him in disgust, "Don't give me that crap, you've been all night in the lab again, haven't you?"

George H.

Yup, that's a good one too.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs