ultimate test bench

[camusmuse]

I'm curious what test equipment some of the more "advanced" members here would want on their "ultimate" test bench. Being relatively new to repair I would like to put together as close to a "professional" test bench as possible, and would like to hear from anyone that may have suggestions. From specific brands, to where I could find them, to how much they should cost, I'm all ears. I am particularly interested in a PC based platform, I've seen a few computer based oscopes that look interesting, does anyone have any experience with these or the like?

Thanks....

Nathan

[till]

i´m not professional, and would not call myself "advanced" but i use 2 TEK7000 mainframes on my bench, a 7313 storage scope and a 7904 500MHz analog scope, with various plugins. What i would like to supplement them would be 7A22, 7A13, 7D13 plugins.

A pretty gallery of TEK scopes here: http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/~kahrs/testeq/7000.html

[jackinnj]

if you have a bench to work on, you can start assembling test components which fit the Tektronix TM500, TM5000 series of power mainframes -- there are 4.5 digit DVM's, signal generators, frequency counters, pulse generators, distortion analyzers, power supplies, oscilloscopes etc. which fit easily into these compartments. A lot of these plug-in's sell for $20 to $30, some like the distortion analyzers cost $250.

I have a TM5006 == a 6 slot mainframe -- I use it with a PS5010 dual tracking power supply, or a pulse generator --

http://www.tech-diy.com/tek500.htm

interesting -- there is a guy up in Canada who has started to sell Proto-Boards which fit into the plug-in carcases and will fit onto the backplane of the TM5XX -- he's selling via EBay -- thus if you have a beat up 5B15 time-base, you can remove the innards and bezel of the old-plug in and replace it with the proto-board and your own circuit. You can fit a lot of electronics into these plug-ins for testing.