[time-nuts] Recently acquired 53132A

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

The 53132 is the older version of the 53230 counter. It’s been out of production 
and past "end of life" support for quite a while now. It’s main issue measurement 
wise is a group of issues that make it less sensitive (lower resolution) than one 
might think right at 10 MHz and to a lesser extent at 10 MHz / N or 10 MHz * N. 
There is no known “fix” other than running it with a reference that is detuned a bit
from 10 MHz. That obviously has some issues all by its self. I suppose a fix could 
be to not measure 10 MHz ….

The biggest failure point in the counters that I have seen has been the power supplies. 
They apparently came as a completed module from an HP supplier. One wonders who
that might have been …. I would strongly recommend taking a look at yours to be sure
the water did not damage the board. I would also make sure the fan is clean and 
operates correctly. Clogged fans lead to dead power supply boards …. 

All that said, it’s a pretty good counter. I’m not sure it is worth a crazy price, but there is
a price I would gladly pay for one. They all will eventually die as the las of the VFD displays 
wear out. At that point, hopefully we all will be running them via serial or GPIB and 
not even notice the issue. 

Lots of Fun 

Bob

> On Dec 18, 2017, at 2:23 PM, Pete Lancashire <pete at petelancashire.com> wrote:
> 
> Friday I acquired a 53132A
> 
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/xexnJcEmT8tEWXi73
> 
> It does not have any options.
> 
> It is from a place that sells "selected" E-waste. I was in a water damaged
> box, and was from a DHL freight insurance sale. It's been in the box until
> a couple weeks ago.
> 
> Anyway, until now I've not followed the conversation on the issues with
> using the External Reference, which I would like to do. But don't see if
> there
> were any conclusions or anything that could be done other then the issues
> where fixed in the "B" version.
> 
> Is there a problem and a 'fix' that I missed searching the archives ?
> 
> -pete
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