From the stepped recess in the front-panel around the LCD, it's quite possible the injection mould has a removable insert that lets them use the same mould for different display options (including the VFD mentioned in the manual). It would be interesting to see what is under that grey plastic bezel. There may be moulding lines there, or they may use the recess for the bezel to hide the disconnect that the mould insert would create.
The main reason would be to keep the mains wiring away from the instruments front end electronics, magnetic fields at 50/60Hz and high frequency noise would radiate from these wires, so the further away from the sensitive electronics the better the overall noise performance would be.
Gerry, I notice you have a US style power strip... Is that a little extraterritoriality zone on your bench? Long power cord to US embassy? ... Seriously though, is that for non-UK gear or some other purpose.. great video thanks
You would have to do a lot of aggressive drawing I think. I did not make contact with the meter but even if I did I doubt I could draw a conductible trace with an HB2 :)
Nice videos, but can you please turn your camera to 25P (assuming you have digital PAL camera, yes some video cameras are still "PAL and NTSC") and not that 50 interlaced, or atleast apply deinterlacing properly. Turning on 25P/30P you wont lose anything, but it will look like it should on youtube. You are uploading videos with 1080, but moving edges are jagged, beats the point NO, this is not problem with my display or anything, if someone says that they don't know what they are talking about.
I was wondering why they always use a plastic leg all the way to the power switch in the back, could you not just bring a hot wire loop to the front panel, or is there a main reason, for this.
I think it probably is. The meter its self is good, and the same chassis there is I believe a 6.5 digit version. The LCD display though makes it look like a really cheap meter. I still have the one I reviewed and its still in its box, I have never used it since.
Hi Chuck, its small...and its LCD, the kind of cheap looking LCD that has high persistence so the display looks soft and undefined and washed out while moving and when settled down the backlight is uneven and cheap looking. Don't get me wrong, its readable, but in the same way a really cheap HiFi LCD display is. This is easy to say when you compare it to instruments that have quality VFD's, TFT's, OLED's or even good quality LCD displays.
Hi Matt, I have a 750watt 240v to 115v isolation transformer sitting under the bench so I can plug US gear into the strip without any need to think too much about it. Dead handy because its both isolated and lower voltage. If I need to scope mains referenced circuits like switch-modes I just configure for 110v operation and I am running fully isolated. The US style power strip is a simple extension I bought from Fry's in the US, nice an convenience for the bench. Gerry
Yeah, I think mine too. But if Keithley had the foresight to do something better than they did with the display it could have been a very different story...
be carefull when you pull the sticker off so you can put it back later and they won't know that you opened it. If it fails, go to youtube and quickly remove the video and hope they haven't watched it :)
Both your videos are informative and I’m grateful for them. I did find it a little paradoxical that you’re happy to take the thing to bits, but left the protective film on the display, bubbles and all. Has the meter held up for you over the years?
Yeah I tried to keep it as new, and to be honest, since I shot that video the meter is still in its box and has never been used. I have a lot of meters!
Nice tear down...although almost twice the price, if cost vs. capability were not the first concern I think the Agilent 34460A, 34461A series would get you more capability and a much better display! (Sorry, couldn't resist as I agree with you!). That would be my choice if I replace my Agilent 34405A sometime in the future. Dino
Knowing that you could use a pencil to unlock/overclock old AMDs by connecting the right pads on the processor by a pencil stroke, I really feared for your meter when you used the pencil to point around inside the meter ;) .
terry sweet Hi Terry, yes he did mention me, which was nice of him. Glad to send him the chip, I enjoy his videos so was glad to help him out. Thanks for watching. Gerry