I am just curious how viable would it be to use a 531xx series counter with Timelab if the counter display has failed ?
Thanks in advance Mark Spencer [email protected] 604 762 4099 > On Oct 22, 2020, at 6:36 AM, Bob kb8tq <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi > >> On Oct 22, 2020, at 7:50 AM, Giorgio Barinetti <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> As a newbie in the field, I've collected, by chance, some frequency >> standards. >> >> Now is the time to measure them, and see how they perform. >> >> I've inherited a 5371, but something tells me that is not the right >> instrument - and maybe is even faulty. >> >> So, I'm in the need to buy a counter to use togheter with TimeLab. >> >> Choices are many, but I'll try to avoid the "older" machines lile 5370 or >> 5335. The 531xx series seems nice ( money apart ) >> But again : which one between the 3 ? 53131, 53132 or 53181 ? > > 53181 = single channel 400 ps counter > 53131 = dual channel 400 ps counter > 53132 = dual channel 100 ps counter > > 5370 (when working) = dual channel 20 ps counter > > The gotcha is that none of them are good enough to properly measure 1 > second ADEV on a good ( but still could be cheap ) OCXO. A mixer based > setup is a cheap way to get things done, even with a 5335. > > The 531xx counters all share a couple of issues: > > 1) The power supply was made by who knows who and their quality is not > the best. Good news is that the power supply out of a (cheap) 53181 will > swap over to revive an expensive 53132. > > 2) They have a fan, it plugs with dust. When that happens it gets hot inside > the cabinet. Things (like the power supply) die as a result. > > 3) They have a VFD display. It’s a nice one, but they do wear out. Replacing > them is problematic. > > 4) They have a fancy setup to add digits to a frequency measurement. It > can lead you astray. It also tends to go deaf right at 10 MHz. There are app > notes out there that explain the details. > > 5) With *any* counter, a good external reference is the way to go for “Time > Nut” > grade measurements. > > None of that is to say they are a bad counter, far from it. I have a number > of them and have been using them here and at work for decades. The 532xx > counters are the latest and greatest. They are on eBay, but not cheap. > > Bob > > > >> >> Can somebody shed some light, and maybe help even to found a baseline for us >> beginners ? >> >> Regards, >> IZ2JGB >> Giorgio >> >> My NTP servers: (ntpd on FreeBSD - PPS in via Serial) >> >> HP/Symmetricom 55300A https://www.ntppool.org/scores/93.41.196.243 >> >> Efratom Rb/Xc GPSDO https://www.ntppool.org/scores/95.255.136.126 >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to >> http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com >> and follow the instructions there. > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to > http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow the instructions there.
