Antique measuring equipment - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 25, 2010, 02:58:23 pm
content: Do you have any antique measuring equipment? Do you like old gear?I shure do and as I have some rather obscure hobbies there's also the odd very specialised piece ofequipment. So I thought it worthwhile to share that with you my fellow nerds.Feel free to contribute!First a very old Siemens ampere meter. Range 0,1/1/10A. Very accurate and has no problems with burden voltage. I use this thing a lot.Then my BBC Goerz Unigor 6e analogue multimeter. This thing has it all: True RMS, down to 1µA. Probably one of the best analogue meters you could buy 30 odd years ago.BBC Goerz later merged with Metrawatt.Here's another Metrawatt: The P1 Thermometer. -60...+210°C, very usefull tool. And way better thanthose rubbish thermocouples you get with cheap meters.A nearly 50 year old Hameg 107 oscilloscope. This one's here because I saved it from the skip. All tube, not a single semiconductor inside. Can still be used in AF work. Very cute little thing but only 2MHz bandwidth.Now something more specialised: Topward Distortion Meter. I do a lot of AF work where this proved to be invaluable.And even more specialised: A Wow & Flutter meter. My other hobby is everything to do with magnetic tape. So I still run a few reel to reel's and cassette decks. Here this thing comes in handy. No other use for it though.My darling: The HP 400F AC millivoltmeter. This is one of the most used peaces of gear I own. I find it unvaluable for AF work.And lastly my bench multimeter. I use this much more than my hand held ones. Mainly because it never has a flat battery and is always here. My hand helds always end up somwhere else or without juice.It's only 3,5 digits but that's enough for me. It is True RMS though, wich is important.Oh, and don't let me forget my beloved TI calculators. I love that old style with the tiny red LED displays. I have about 5 or 6 of them, everytime I see one for a few Euros i have to buy it, kind of compulsory.I don't knw what the people at school thought of me when I turned up with my old TI-30 calculator. They all had shiny new TI-30's with boring LCD displays.

author: McPete
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2010, 11:39:43 am
content: I see and service a lot of older gear. Unfortunately, I don't have images of them at the moment, but here's a short list;Master Instruments Model 4- The Australian AVO, for want of a better description. 1% FSD on DC, 2% FSD on AC, 2% on resistance. Compact, fairly rugged, and well liked by field staff to this day. Divider networks, a transformer, big rotary switch and two diodes. Such a nice switch, incidentally, Dave would love itFeranti V-1800- The biggest tong ammeter I've worked on, purchased in 1964, apparently! Still quite accurate, and as I said, huge. I was able to clip the damn thing around my neck!Goerz UniGor 6eP- The most accurate analogue mutlimeter I've yet seen. Also the most fiendishly complicated. The diagrams and adjustment instructions come in a fairly large folder.YEW 2000-series moving iron analogue meters- If you wanted a better movement to learn to work on, you'd be hard pressed to find one, with the possible exception of some of the big University panel meters. Super accurate, and still loved by field staff! In out last clean-out, we salvaged an almost complete set of them, in pristine condition.Gossen panel meters- The most bizarre movement construction going. Having the case on or off changes the reading markedly, making adjustments... "fun".The Gossen G-Ohm earth tester is also a very popular bit of gear that seems to soldier on despite the age they are, and provided they're not abused, still do a fantastic job.I do remember seeing a Weston Instruments CT a few years ago, which was date stamped 1934, but I couldn't say where that is right now.Next time I see a nice older bit of gear, I'll try to take a photo.

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 26, 2010, 08:15:00 pm
content: Excelent thread! I will keep watchin it.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 26, 2010, 08:53:43 pm
content: Nice! One can see David's set up here too:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=812.msg9952#msg9952I still use my rare credit card sized pocket scientific solar calculator which I've used since college:But I'm not one to take it to places it could be permanently damaged, so I bought a few of its modern clones, which cost me $7 at Walmart.4x bigger, with nearly equal functionality.

author: longview
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2010, 08:51:36 pm
content: I've gotten a few pieces of tech from my high school, including a HP 427a voltmeter (µV AC, but not true RMS on non-sinusoidal signals), HP 1740a oscilloscope (100 MHz!) and a PM5324 RF generator. Most of the really old equipment was put in a museum we maintained, in fact I think we added a similar model to the Siemens current meter this spring...I also got my soldering station, signal generator and a 250 MHz frequency counter but those don't fit my definition of ancient yet!I didn't have a picture of the scope available so I included a picture of a vector drawing I made with my sound-card and one of the internals.