Anybody know anything about Scientech 365

[acro-ii]

I need to know if there is a quick way to see if the meter is probably ok, without hooking a sensor to it. Anybody have any ideas???

Thanks

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Acro ---

If it's like the 362, DON't short out the probe leads. Call Phil Guiet at 303-444-1361. He sent me FREE manuals on my 362 by email.
Super company with old equipment support.
The sensor may be nothing more than a peltier diode array with a "special" black coating and a massive heatsink.

Mike

 

[acro-ii]

Don't have the meter yet, it's one I'm maybe buying!
Just wanted a quick test to see if it is alive before I buy it. Seller agreed to do a test if I tell him what to do. He doesn't have the sensor, just the meter

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

OOoohhh POOP --
I have the 362 and it uses a 360001 sensor. I have no info on the 365. Look it up on the web and if it uses a 3600 series sensor, a peltior array may work. I can send you the info on mine but I have nothing on yours. If you look it up, it should tell what style sensor is used.

Mike

 

[pseudonomen137]

Acro ---

If it's like the 362, DON't short out the probe leads.  Call Phil Guiet at 303-444-1361.  He sent me FREE manuals on my 362 by email.
Super company with old equipment support.
The sensor may be nothing more than a peltier diode array with a "special" black coating and a massive heatsink.

Mike

Dunno about the meter, sorry. As for peltier arrays though, they aren't actually diodes and the ones in power meters are normally thermopiles. To get real TECs you can often pay >$15 retail and its not uncommon to see sensors use thermopiles in excess of 100 junction. I get TECs relatively cheap at just a few bucks apiece so I tried sticking ~20 together with a heatsink and a sharpie coating and testing it out on the voltmeter. I definitely got SOME results, but there was a serious lag, high sensitivity without zeroing, low accuracy, etc. Perhaps if I tried with more, but the thermopiles used in the sensors are thinner and different from a simple pile of TECs unfortunately.

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Pseudo --

Sorry for my misleading statements again. I have a Scientech 362 power energy meter with a 36-0001 sensor. It is super sensitive to external temperature variations and the sensor is described in their book as a Calorimeter. I opened it once and found what "appears" to be a peltior array mounted to a heatsink and coated on the "business" side with what is described as a "proprietary Scientech coating".
Presuming that the 365 has a similar input as the 362, I quote," Caution: The input of the 36-2002 should never be shorted for zero adjustment. The 36-2002 presents a negative resistance to the disc calorimeter. An external short can cause damage to the circuit".

I was only trying to prevent accidential damage to a potentially good meter by someone putting a simple diode across the input.

Mike

 

[acro-ii]

OK, LET ME REPHRASE!
I am possibly buying the meter. The seller does not have a sensor(I do). He is willing to test the meter for me, but I don't know what to tell him to do to see if the meter is ok. He says it turns on, the backlight lights up, and the display reads 0.00
I was just trying to see if there was something I could tell him to try.

Thanks

 

[Hemlock_Mike]

Make sure you have a DOA return option. If the meter is like mine, there will be a dual bananna jack on a cable. That plugs into the red and black lacks on the sensor with the side which says "GND" going to the black. The white jacks are a heater used for calibration.

Mike

 

[pseudonomen137]

OK, LET ME REPHRASE!
I am possibly buying the meter. The seller does not have a sensor(I do). He is willing to test the meter for me, but I don't know what to tell him to do to see if the meter is ok. He says it turns on, the backlight lights up, and the display reads 0.00
I was just trying to see if there was something I could tell him to try.

Thanks

Buying older meters off eBay can be scary sometimes and there's no way you can really be sure. I have an old meter/head from eBay that I do not use for anything serious, simply because though it give me readings, I have no way to know if they're accurate or at all calibrated.

When dealing with stuff like this you just have to plunge in and take a risk... either that or pay the full retail on a new setup, which I sure would cost a few magnitudes more than this surplus one. When you get it, you'll want to try it out and then make sure the results are accurate with a recently calibrated meter. As Hemlock said, make sure you aren't gunna get screwed over by a DOA, and take every precaution you can, but in the end you have to take a risk.

I've bought a few old argons off eBay this way. Paid for a working setup once and ended up with ~10mW of 488nm. Bought another head, got ~1-5mW 488nm. Then I took another plunge and struck the jackpot: for around the same price as the first working setup, I got a ~200mW multi-line. Unfortunately though, you just gotta take that risk and hope for the best with this surplus stuff.

 

[acro-ii]

well, it's coming, so we'll see!
;D