Sean, the option for the Tek 575 that's eluding you is Mod 122C - it adds a third range of 0-400V @ 0.5A to the 0-20V @ 10A and 0-200V @ 1A collector sweep supply of the standard instrument.
-Pat
On April 27, 2020 at 11:52 AM [email protected] wrote:
Yeah, complete UI/UX changes with web services seem to be par for the course these days. Farcebook is a leading example. But I digress...
Another thing to keep in mind with the Tek curve tracers is some of them develop HV transformer difficulties (lots of info about this+repair strategies on TekScopes); however, they are indispensable if you need to characterize high power parts. The 575 with a particular special option (name and number escapes me) is even better for this. I'd personally like to find a good one with that option as it would be a great curve tracer and would satisfy the itch to have one glowing Tek with vacuum tubes and ceramic strip construction. :o) It doesn't have blanking though, so things like families of curves will show retrace unlike a 577 or 576. The 577 also has the advantage of basically being made of standard 5000 series oscilloscope parts, unlike the 576 which is large and more complicated with the fiber optics to light the display annunciators. You can also get the 577 with a storage crt, but whether that crt will have any life left is questionable most likely.
As I understand it, the semiconductor parameter analyzer that HP marketed was really more intended to be an analytical lab instrument mainly focused on characterizing lower-power parts, while Tek curve tracers often were used on production lines for matching components and stuff like that. This at least partially explains why a lot of 577 and 576 curve tracers that come up for sale are beat up pretty badly. And as you observed, good condition examples command high prices.
I understand where you are coming from wanting to be able to do whatever measurement you need. I'm working to build up to that and also be able to calibrate my own stuff. Perhaps we can have a discussion offline about what you've found indispensable, as I believe our interests align quite a bit in the microwave realm.
Cheers!
Sean
On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 07:02 AM, Reginald Beardsley wrote:
Occulus, Thanks. Yahoo changed the interface so that it doesn't show unread messages in the SPAM bin :-(
As a consequence I've been forgetting to check and empty it as I used to do every day.
I do wish that "developers" would realize that people do *not* want the UI to change constantly.
Keysight didn't have much on their stuff on the website, but I eventually found copies of the manuals at some of the repair shops. It appears that a 4145B is what I want (i.e. is cheap enough I can afford it ). Perhaps augmented by a Tek 576 or 577, but those look rather expensive and hard to find.
In general I want to be able to make pretty much any test I might need. At the time I was most active designing and building stuff all I had was a 5 MHz recurrent sweep single channel scope (banana plug input), a VOM and a DMM. All my other test gear was DIY. Trying to build radios from scratch with that is pretty much a lost cause. But I was in my early 30's on my 2nd pass through grad school. So I had no budget for things other than books. Those were very expensive, though now it appears to be worse.
Reg
Cubdriver