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HP 5316a Repair

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5316AOnce again, knowing no end to repairing things, I saw an HP 5316a come up on eBay for cheap ($20), that I bid on first thing, and ended up winning. Not sure I WANTED to win it, but hey, it’s a repair, I’m cool with doing those. Maybe I’ll be able to resell it, maybe not. *shrug*

3 days later, it showed up on my doorstep via FedEx, and looked to be in good condition, except the missing handle and feet, as described by the seller. Initial power up showed it power up okay, but never register any count. The gate LED would trigger, as would the sensitivity LED, and both could be adjusted. I did get a alternating flashing of the HP-IB LEDs on the front panel though (at this time, I didn’t know what this meant).

After opening the unit, I noticed two empty sockets, one on the HP-IB (GPIB) card, and one on the main board. It appeared they were used for a ribbon cable between the two, but the cable was missing. Also, another power up showed an E2 error (which translates into a failed HP-IB card)… which isn’t surprising given the connection to the HP-IB card was missing. I’m just not sure why it booted okay previous to that.

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Re:load Pro

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Re-load ProI have wanted a Programmable load for a while, and truly needed one since I purchased an unknown quality HP 6624 for $10 at Goodwill and needed a way to test it before re-selling. I’ve looked at the venerable BK Precision, as well as the “knockoff” (or OEM, depending on who you believe), Maynuo equivalent. But, I just couldn’t swallow the $300+ price tag. I also looked at building one, but it just never made it on my list. But then, Arachnid Labs came to the rescue, and created the Re:Load Pro, a programmable version of his inexpensive Re:Load that offered a simple DC load equivalent to Dave Jones’ venerable one from years ago.

Unfortunately, I somehow missed the Kickstarter for the Re:load Pro, so I had to order one off Tindie and wait for them to ship. Thankfully for my pocketbook, and my wife, I had some money in Paypal from an eBay sale that I used to buy the Re:Load Pro.

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APC Back-Ups Connect (BGE70)

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APC Back-Ups Connect BGE70Since moving off my Airport Extreme to the Asus RT-N16, I’ve been concerned about the lack of backup power in the case of a power outage (my cable modem has a backup battery, but my router doesn’t). I’ve been looking fro a small UPS for some time now, but all I’ve ever found were the power strip style ones. Then, a few weeks back, I found a stack of these BGE70‘s at the local Goodwill (brand new), for $20 each. Knowing they wouldn’t sell fast, I decided to wait a until they fell to half price, and pick one up then.

4 weeks later, their color came around, and I picked one up for $10. Awesome. I brought it home, hooked up the negative battery terminal, and plugged it in. It powered right up, and seemed to work great. It does output a simple square wave (which doesn’t matter (much) to most digital gear, or their switching power supplies), and provides about 75W of capacity. I’m only loading it to about 15W, so I should get at least 100 minutes of uptime. =) The unit has two screw slots on the backside that allow wall mounting, which was easy to do where my cable modem and router are in the garage.

The unit doesn’t have grounded power outlets (nor is it’s input grounded), so it’s really meant for routers, cable modems, access points, etc. It’s not a computer UPS (though, I suppose you COULD use it for something like an LED backlit LCD TV).

My only complaint about the unit, and it’s minor, is the rather bright green LED on the power button. The unit is in the garage, so it doesn’t matter, but if I had my router and cable modem in my office still, I’d find the light overly bright. But, some tape or round white labels would fix that quickly.

Overall, very happy, and certainly worth the $10 (probably worth the $50 that they retail for, even).

[xrr rating=5/5]