About
All Feedback (92)
- bmsantaca1 (1987)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseGreat ebayer
- murphyjunk (8976)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseSuper customer! Fast payment and a pleasure to do business with. Come back soon!
- extrastuff1605 (844)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseA+++++++
- 2chicksresale23 (133)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseGreat buyer! Great customer and experience!
- 2014ngcliff (1793)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseA+++ Customer, fast pay, please come back again.
- dowrite2 (1531)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseGood buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
Reviews (6)
21 Sep, 2021
really not up to the task
B&K Precision has been around a long time, and they provide some good products, and some that are less good. This is less good. (Software ver 1.1, for reference. Purchased mid 2021, but originally delivered in 2016 to the first owner, by the supplied paperwork. May have been old stock)
As a meter, it works. The unit I purchased was used, but it still meets the specifications for accuracy for all functions and ranges except resistance, where it is slightly out of spec. Not surprising given the unit is several years old. It isn't an HP, after all, and the price isn't either. If all I cared about was basic standalone use, this would be fine. The speed is ok, it has good averaging options (running average over a queue of n, or acquire n and average), and the math functions I have tried do their job. I haven't checked the statistics results, and there have been reported issues there. The front panel connectors are ok and the control buttons responsive.
But the selling point to me was the RS-232/USB connectivity. (WINDOWS ONLY USB driver is in the B&K site. It is an RS-232 to USB bridge providing a virtual serial port to a windows machine) Here, it fails miserably. The manual clearly states that there is no handshaking for the communication, but that the echo option serves the same purpose. Check for character echo, and if it isn't, then resend. Unfortunately, the first character sent when the meter isn't ready- the first not echoed- triggers an error state on the meter. This abandons the operation in process, at least some of the time, and has unspecified time to resolve. It also leave the meter in an unspecified state, sometimes leading to the subsequent valid command triggering an error, or being outright ignored. The SCPI implementation is, as documented, minimal and not to the spec (no exception tree, for example) but the actual behaviour of the meter does not match the documentation. For example, init triggers readback of the reading, without a fetch?. The following fetch? gives no response. This occurs when storing to the buffer, as well. The B&K provided software has problems, and on several computers worked the first start after install, and would never sync again, either failing to acquire the port or failing to synch leaving the meter in a recurring error cycle. The software for the 5491A DID work, but doesn't do the graph or store data sets.
The front panel menu is buggy, sometimes displaying incorrect options. It will also display random text during normal operation when on remote.
The VFD is Quite readable, with large, bright characters. I'd class it as at least as good as the 14 and 16 segment Agilent meters when new (34401A for example), and the characters are larger. Turning off display doesn't power it down (saving operating hours for the VFD) but only stops updates. The meter operates faster this way, but the main benefit is lost.
The meter does not have documentation for field calibration, and the cal menu is locked out. Yes, I have tried all 10^4 codes, and none unlock it. None do. (about 3 six packs over a week to try them all. It isn't an exciting time)
My particular unit will not read the lowest range for 4-wire resistance (100ohm), though is fine on all others and reads fine on the 2-wire 100ohm range. I have not opened the unit to debug, but would guess this is a repairable hardware issue.
The B&K tech support has been helpful, as has been my experience with other of their products, even those several decade old, but they can't fix poor design. B&K doesn't manufacture this, or the replacement, but spec it from another manufacturer. The list price was around $700US (depending on when). I took a chance at a much lower price, and would not again for even less.
07 Sep, 2021
dated and quaint, but really pretty VFD
(EBAY review system strikes again, so this is much shorter that the original)
Limited bandwidth by todays standards (tops out at HF), and only a sweep generator. No arbitrary waveforms. No modulation. Just sweeps.
But what it can do with sweeps.
The outputs are decidedly analog scope era: X for driving an X-Y mode analog scope, Z-blanking, and so on.
But the marker output is a thing of wonder. And the sweep versatility to marvel at. Sine waves (and square) only, but the stability is great and the purity awesome. Ok, there are triangle and sawtooth, but at laughably low frequencies.
The 003 and 004 options allow for phase synchronization between units, should you have one of each, but other than the +/-720 degree phase range, this isn't any competition with even inexpensive modern multichannel units.
The ovenized option give truly awesome stability (it compares well with my rubidium standard, and hold up to a good GPS disciplined unit.)
GPIB only, of course. No serial, and USB wasn't yet a gleam in IBM's eye. Not a big deal, as programming from the panel isn't to bad. It is just a sweep generator. The programs can be fairly complex sweep sequences, and, if frequency continuous, they will be phase continuous. The programmable markers, and marker output BNC, are very handy, and a big part of why I bought it. That and the ovenized oscillator. And the VFD. This is the high point of VFD displays, before the car stereo designers went beyond rational usability in the mid-1990's. The interface is quite usable. Much better than, say, the menus on the 33120A AWG, or the 66311B. It's all right there. No deep menus to get lost in and need to restart for every option. Try to set a sweep from the front panel on a '120A sometime.
If the frequency range meets your needs, and you need a sweep gen (or steady state frequency gen), and find a 3324A for the right price, especially with option 001, well worth it.
29 Dec, 2020
A great unit, for the right prine
1 of 1 found this helpful his is not the most modern 6.5 digit unit, but it scan still hold its own.
The VFD display has class. A lot of class. There is no competition for space like on many more modern units, it is easy to read, and the function is clearly displayed at all times. The available acquisition rates are competitive with current products, given that the accuracy is limited ultimately by things like power-line interference, so measurements need to be synchronized to whole numbers of cycles. The available measurements cover most bench meter use cases. The ranges are excellent (100nV resolution at the lowest range) with good inherent stability and accuracy.
It is dated in that there is no USB or network connectivity. RS-232 or IEEE488 are it. But what do you expect for a meter that hit the market the same time as Windows-95? It speaks SCPI, but can also speak HP3478A and Fluke 8840, should there be a need. Minimal finicky-ness with RS232, adn none with GPIB, in my experience.
Programming via the remote interface is fairly versatile for the time. Triggering response is good, making it practical to do near-simultaneous acquisition across several instruments, even using RS232 (think device testing with a programmable power supply and several meters, for example)
The meter DOES NOT do some measurements that are common today, such as capacitance or generating a histogram, but covers most of what current instruments of comparable class do. This is not the most modern meter on my bench, but when I needed another 6+ digit unit that is stable and accurate, it was the economical option (as opposed to a new 44360A for nearly 4 times the price) for use as a general bench meter and, especially, in remote programmed applications.