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Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
I'm sure many beside myself have had difficulty in giving a useful opinion to a query by not knowing what test equipment the poster does or doesn't have.
Some members will be blessed with a great many instruments, while others may have only a multimeter, and perhaps not even that.
Where folk raise questions where practical measurement is likely to form part of the answer, much better responses could be given if they would list their chief measuring instruments when they frame their question. No need for make and model type information, just the basics - multimeter, frequency counter, pulse generator, RF voltmeter, oscilloscope, and the like.
Measurement is at the heart of all we do, and responses to practical problems framed without reference to instruments are likely to be no more than guesses - from me at least!
Registered Member #1062
Joined: Tue Oct 16 2007, 02:01AM
Location:
Posts: 1529
Or look like a idiot with your lack of instruments.... I have a cheap 10$ multimeter, with half the functions not working. The best instrument i have is a caliper. 0-6", .001" tolerance, or .1mm.
I may be able to get a scope and a pretty neat multimeter, as well as a regulated power supply from omega. The multimeter has all the standard, plus thermocuople inputs, inductance, capacitance, and a built in infrared thermometer.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
rp181 wrote ...
Or look like a idiot with your lack of instruments.... I have a cheap 10$ multimeter, with half the functions not working. The best instrument i have is a caliper. 0-6", .001" tolerance, or .1mm.
Years ago, as a transmitter engineer, 99% of all circuit investigations were done with the Avo Mk VIII, a large, heavy, beautifully constructed moving coil meter with a mirror scale and a reputation for excellence.
Nowadays, even a cheap multimeter can outperform the Avo Mk VIII for most purposes, as well as providing a whole range of luxurious extras unthought of in the Thermionic Age.
The multimeter is first among diagnostic tools, and few in this forum would be unable to afford a modest, but quite adequate instrument.
Many items of test gear might be counted luxuries, but the basic multimeter is an essential diagnostic tool. How else are we to understand what is going on with our patient, their health or sickness, without the ability to measure their pulse?
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
Ahh the Avo Model 8... Still being produced as far as I know, and if you're feeling nostalgic you can pick one up on Ebay any day of the week. And still a very useful tool to have for working around high voltage equipment, where the EM fields can send digital instruments crazy. I had one, but I accidentally dropped it and broke the movement
I think knowing how to use the gear is much more important than what gear you have. The only exception to that is that I tend to ignore help requests from SSTC builders who don't own an oscilloscope. It's just too much hassle trying to troubleshoot without one. If you only have a multimeter, it's more like taking the patient's temperature than their pulse.
Registered Member #543
Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992
Steve McConner wrote ...
I think knowing how to use the gear is much more important than what gear you have. The only exception to that is that I tend to ignore help requests from SSTC builders who don't own an oscilloscope. It's just too much hassle trying to troubleshoot without one. If you only have a multimeter, it's more like taking the patient's temperature than their pulse.
A less circuitous way of making my post would have been to ask that anyone wanting advice from me about thermionic valves should be equipped to measure the basic electrode voltages and currents, and at least make an effort to learn something from the valve data sheet, if I am going to be able to offer any useful advice.
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