[time-nuts] Picotest U6200A & Timelab

[Ulrich Bangert]

Gentlemen,

a few weeks ago a link to a new counter named "U6200A" was to be found here
in the group. I considered the technical properties of this counter (which
is sold under the brands "Array" or "Picotest") that interesting at its
price that i ordered one immediately. 

I did not buy it directly from China but instead from a German importer
called OSCOMP. They were able to deliver me the counter with a built in
GPIB-interface. I had not been able to allocate a seller in China with this
option. 

I am currently testing the counter and as far everything looks pretty good.
You can get an impression of the counter's capabilities by the direct
comparison to the industry standard here:

http://www.stantronic.de/b/Comparison-U6200A.pdf

At its price and the 40 ps single shot resolution it may be a good idea to
buy such a counter new for time nuts purposes instead of hunting for used
5370s and SR620s. 

Since the manual claims that the counter features a "HP53132 compatible SCPI
command languge" I tried to run John Miles's Timelab with the counter which
failed in the beginning. Due to John's immediate reaction on my inquiry
concerning the U6200a Timelab now has its own hardware entry for te U6200A
in the "Acquire" menu and my tests show that Timelab runs like charm with
the U6200A.

Note that Timelab checks the device id with a *IDN? and the current version
recognizes the Picotest brand answer to this. This may be different with the
Array brand id. 

Best regards 

Ulrich Bangert
www.ulrich-bangert.de
Ortholzer Weg 1
27243 Gross Ippener 
Germany