Rhode & Schwarz RMS/Peak Voltmeter URE3 350.5315.03 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: dstransmissions
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 04:22:45 pm
content: Hi everyoneFairweather EEVblog fan here with a level of technical expertise that approaches zero. I've a quick question about a fairly deluxe piece of kit that hopefully one or more of you might know the answer to5 years or so back I inherited a massive cache of testing and radio equipment from my dear departed dad - I've attached a pic of just a bit of it.I've been selling bits off here and there over the last few years, and lately came across a Rhode & Schwarz RMS/Peak Voltmeter URE3 350.5315.03As you may imagine I was thrilled to find on eBay that this is a very expensive item. I've powered it up, it passed the self test fine, but with no input the frequency displayed on the startup screen changes about 10 times a second. All the function buttons do what I assume they're supposed to do but I was wondering if someone could tell me if it's supposed to fluctuate while idling like this?And i not, is it fixable without becoming a costly industrial operation?I've attached a little video of it in action as a gifFor anyone interested this came from military surplus and was last calibrated in 2007. Those were the days!All the bestBen

author: Fixpoint
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 09:17:03 pm
content: Quote from: dstransmissions on January 27, 2021, 04:22:45 pmWell, if the device has a problem, the reason could be *anything*. There is absolutely no way of knowing this without looking into the device. The difficulty of a repair of vintage equipment like this ranges from trivial (like changing the caps or replacing a diode) over intermediate (like identifying and replacing dead opamps, voltage regulators, or references) over very challenging (like troubleshooting RF sections of the instrument) to as good as impossible (like if some obscure 1980's IC that hasn't been available for 20 years would have to be replaced), and the amount of time that has to be put it into it is more or less unpredictable.EDIT: I forgot to mention that old equipment often has loose connectors or broken solder joints. Strange and confusing failures can occur just because of loose connectors and broken solder joints. Before you do anything, you should make sure that there are none of these. Usually you can do that just by visual inspection.QuoteUnfortunately, the forum doesn't display that animation, at least not for me.

author: dstransmissions
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 10:38:37 pm
content: Thanks @Fixpoint, appreciate the response.I was ideally looking for a more specific answer from someone on this particular voltmeter if possible - like if anyone owns or has used this unit in the past, with no input does the display normally settle on 0 on startup or does it fluctuate like this one is doing? And if the former whether this is more likely to be a maintenance or calibration issue. I appreciate this second point especially is a big ask from so little second hand info!I'd just like to see if I can get a reference opinion in what 'normal' should be before I start digging around inside this (to me) frighteningly expensive bit of kitThanks also for the heads up about the gif, I'll see if I can upload the video in a different form.All the bestBen

author: dstransmissions
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 28, 2021, 11:29:32 am
content: Here's a link to the video -https://sites.google.com/a/deepspacetransmissions.com/site/Resources/about/VID_20210127_155423~2.mp4