On 1/9/2012 7:21 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Hi Roy
There's some very good stuff coming out of China via Ebay, but some does
come with confusion attached and it's probably best never to place too much
reliance on descriptions unless for items reasonably well known or with
relevant documentation available.
Just to add to the confusion, quite a few sellers seem to use multiple IDs,
sometimes blatantly obvious but sometimes not, and also exhibit almost
paranoid behaviour at times when it comes to not sharing information with
those considered to be local competitors. The paranoia, of course, might be
well founded:-)
One other aspect of their paranoia is that many of the Chinese sellers
make all their auctions private. It makes me wonder what they're
hiding. Maybe their paranoia is a bit contagious. :-) Private
auctions really annoy me because if I see some negative ratings, I can't
tell what item they were complaining about. Maybe it was the item I was
interested in, maybe not. But since I can't tell, I'm likely to take my
business elsewhere.
Probably best not to assume either that any of these sellers are too well
informed electronically.
I asked one of the Fe-5680A sellers if his unit had the 1 PPS output on
pin 6. If he had been testing the units, it would have been trivial for
him to check. I never received a response from him. I won't be buying
anything from him in the future.
If you think it can be confusing with the surplus commercial gear, just
wait until you see what they can do when they start to dabble with design,
either their own or those "borrowed" from elsewhere:-)
The FE5680A has certainly been one of the confusing items, firstly just
because there are a number of variants that aren't publicly documented but
not helped again by some sellers providing incorrect information.
I've noticed that they often copy their competitor's information -
particularly amusing when you know that all of them are wrong!
Ed
I wouldn't necessarily describe the current batch of cheaper FE5680As as
basic though, or even non programmable.
They provide both 10MHz and 1PPS outputs, I've identified a well defined
1uS 5V pulse available on pin 6 despite doubts in some quarters, and are
programmable to the extent that the output frequency can be trimmed under
computer control with a fair degree of accuracy and without any of the possible
longer term problems sometimes associated with variable resistors.
They certainly beat at least one of my FE5660As, an FRS-C compatible unit,
where the internal trimmer fell off the PCB in transit:-)
regards
Nigel
In a message dated 09/01/2012 11:57:22 GMT Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Nigel
Thanks for your information. The data given by Bert seems to be getting
more
sensible, and I think you will agree that of all the items that have been
purchased and discussed on "Time-Nuts", this one is hands down for
confusion. One of the reasons for my trusting and buying from Bob (Fluke
I)
is that he is well informed, , has good electronic knowledge and has
always
provided good items of gear. It would seem that the number of Chinese
sellers has increased in the recent past and many of them would seem to
have
little knowledge of the products and even less English to answer
questions.
Again it would seem that if you buy the "cheapies" then you probably have
the basic, non programmable model. I guess the guys at FE are all falling
about when they see our predicament !
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