On 29 December 2012 03:39, Jeff Machesky <jeff@...> wrote:
So I have a 3457a on the way that passes the self tests. What are the
odds of it actually working when I get it? What should I look for as a
general failure for these devices? I always assume anything I purchase
off ebay is going to be in need of repair. Hopefully I'm wrong this
time, but I have to say I've never purchased used gear that didn't need
some repair. The device is in good cosmetic condition and the seller
showed that it passed self tests. No actually readings however. It
was last calibrated in 98. Ohh and my apologizes to anyone that was
also bidding on the same unit. There was a few.
Thanks in advance,
I had one, and it was a good meter. I sold it to a friend, who has
never used it, and now I need it, so he is going to sell it back to
me. Neither of us can remember what I charged him for it first time
around.
I did write some software to control that meter.
It's only been tested on Solaris with the NI GPIB card, but being
command line driven, it should be fairly portable. But I suspect there
are much nicer interfaces.
I looked up the price the other day to get Agilent to calibrate it.
The cost was about ?126 (around $200 I guess). Which is quite
reasonable. That price included delivery and collection costs, but not
tax.
I never had any problems with mine, and when my mate and I were
discussing me having it back yesteday or the day before, he done a few
quick checks and confirmed it still worked fine.
You seem to get quit a lot of meter for your money on that. The 3458A
which gives an extra digit costs about 10x as much used. There is a
newer Agilent meter than the 3457A, which tends to fetch more, but I
recall at one time noticing the calibration cost on that was very most
(?40 or so).
Dave
