[time-nuts] Two PICTIC II bare boards for sale

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Tue Oct 23 20:20:09 UTC 2012


> Hey guys, im still looking to buy an optio 01 kit for my HP 58503A...
> if anyone happesn to know where I might pick one up, I would great
> appreciate it.

Hi Mark,

Postings like this are sort of ok, but not twice in a week.

The 58503A itself is an exceptional device but the addition of the 01 kit (or the 58503B's that include the display/keyboard by default) make an especially beautiful and useful bench instrument. You probably don't know that these kits are quite rare and command a very high price. My suggestion is to keep an open search on eBay and one may show up within a year for under 500. You can sometimes find a used 58503B with display for around 1k. Or you cold hunt for a dead unit that still has the display, case, and buttons intact and use all the parts.

Alternatively you can home-brew a nice LCD, Nixie, or VFD display for the 58503 using existing headers on the board or using SCPI over a RS232 tap. I think it would be a fun project; something you could share with the group. I suspect quite a number people would be interested. Furthermore, if you did it as a RS232 tap and enjoy microcontrollers, you could make it work with many different models (Z3801, 58503, 59551, Fury, and TBolts).

/tvb





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