cal lab near boston for Keithley instruments - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bitter_mike
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2020, 09:13:56 pm
content: I have a used Keithley 2602 SMU and I'm looking for a cal lab that can calibrate it near Boston (Massachusetts, USA for the international folks). I want to just drive it over there so as to avoid the outrageous cost and possible breakage from shipping. Anyone know of such a place? Preferably with reasonable prices?Thank you.

author: Trailboss
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2020, 05:54:43 pm
content: Have you contacted:Essco Calibration Laboratory27 Industrial AvenueChelmsford, MA 01824 USAPhone: 800-325-2201Fax: 978-256-1331Email: service@esscolab.comI've had a few scopes and distortion analyzer calibrated, I think they charged about 100 dollars for each IIRC.

author: n1ist
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2020, 06:05:26 pm
content: We use Hayes at work (and did at my previous job as well)Hayes Instrument Services530 Boston RdBillerica, MA 01821/mike

author: bitter_mike
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2020, 11:23:23 pm
content: I had not found either of those. I will check them out.Many thank to you both!

author: Sceptre
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2020, 03:49:27 am
content: Tektronix is in North Billerica:https://www.tek.com/calibration-services/massachusetts/bostonSimco is in Billerica:https://www.simco.com/

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2020, 12:13:11 am
content: Wow Essco is still around. Blast from the past. In the 70's bought my Ampex badged Micom DMC wow and flutter meter there, also a low hours Tektronix 535a scope. Both still work fine. Never left powered off for months to rot. The Micom construction is second to none, even HP at the time.Dave did a teardown of some piece awhile ago that reminded me of this. Gold plated plug-in boards, etc. The Micom is a base for my living room amp so I can reach it easier.Should do a video myself sometime.Surprisingly ebay has one listed.https://www.ebay.com/itm/Micom-DMC-8300-W-8300W-Flutter-Meter-with-Wave-Analyzer-Data-Measurements-Corp/302048281729Was indispensable during hi-fi boom years for turntable, and a lot of Ampex reel-reel stuff I repaired. I believe it came from a Raytheon lab, used to maintain their analog instrumentation recorders. Rocket stuff.Not sure about the self test reject, zero digital stuff. just loopback .

author: bitter_mike
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2020, 02:01:12 pm
content: Just to close the loop on this, I wanted to update what happened.I got quotes from Tektronix itself and from Hayes. They were similar in cost but Tektronix couldn't do the work at their site in Massachusetts (they wanted me to ship it to New Jersey). So I went with Hayes. It did not go wellI was looking for someone to get the output of one of the channels on my 2602 back to normal. It was outputting voltages quite far off from the setting (+10-20%). Could've been a calibration issue, could've been something requiring a repair. I gave it to Hayes, they held onto it for 3 weeks, sand said they couldn't fix it, which is itself fine because it just may have been beyond the scope of what they can do.The problem is, when they gave it back to me the channel at issue was completely broken. It just says "Overflow" whenever it's turned on. Before, it was off its setting. Now its completely useless. They offered no explanation or warning, just handed it back to me "as is" and sent me on my way. Would not recommend.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2020, 02:23:50 pm
content: Honnestly, if the machine was 20% off, that was never going to be a 'calibration' (or 'adjustment'), that's a repair. The machine was damaged when you shipped it. They may have damaged it further or it may just have degraded further without their intervention.I agree they could have offered more information, provided they were aware. But this begs the question: did you? Did you let them know the unit was off 10-20% before handing it over to them?

author: bitter_mike
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2020, 05:11:15 pm
content: I did. In great detail. And they offered no guarantees and I was fine with that. I'm also perfectly happy to admit that the instrument could have been in a state where normal attempts to adjust it or work on it would've caused degradation or even that the degradation could've occurred on its own (though I doubt it because it has been this way for several years). It is the fact that they absolutely knew the state it was in when they handed it back to me and said nothing about it. No warning, no attempt to explain, nothing. That reads to me like they think they had an oops moment and just didn't want to cop to it.

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2020, 05:51:50 pm
content: Mh, yeah, I understand that I guess. They could have said something.