ESR70 from Peak instruments it's quite nice.
I have an LCR40 wich is quite handy also.
Cheers!

shock__ wrote:

Kinda thinking to go with a cheap meter ($50-$100 segment or possibly just add an LCR/ESR Meter along to my current cheap Multimeter) for now and buy a high quality Fluke(87/28)/Agilent(U1273/U1272)/Gossen(MetraHIT Tech) in the $400 segment later on.

EEVBlog has a pretty good round-up of commonly available DMM's in the $100 range:
https://youtu.be/n3WGaiYF2sk?list=PL4F0B97C59B1D2509

...and another similar of multimeter's in the $50 range:
https://youtu.be/ZoeUgMFLyAw?list=PL4F0B97C59B1D2509

I've been thinking of picking up an Extech as a backup DMM.

Been watching a lot of EEVBlog on that topic.
I think I'll go with just getting a cheap ESR meter for now and a proper high spec multimeter later on ... kinda sucks how the Fluke gear is a decent bit more expensive than in the USA. I really, really like the Agilent gear I've seen so far apart from a few small tidbits (kinda slow continuity beeper and the lower end of cap measurements being largely off).

mjlorton is the user you want to look up and watch his meter reviews. Dave kinda gave up on them after Martin started doing them. Just look up mjlorton blospot and you can find all his vid reviews there.

Kodai wrote:

mjlorton is the user you want to look up and watch his meter reviews. Dave kinda gave up on them after Martin started doing them. Just look up mjlorton blospot and you can find all his vid reviews there.

I've seen various of his reviews/teardowns ... just admitedly don't find them too conclusive/partially repetitive.
Found the Agilent U1271A for 220€ or U1272 for 280€ - right now those are definitely some candidates (Fluke 175/177 are in the same price-class here, but offer way less for that price). We'll see ... potentially might get access to some really high quality gear in another way.

As you live in Germany, I have to ask the question. Have you looked at Gossen Metrawatt? They are considered one of the very best, but their cost outside of Germany is very high. I'm curious what price range they are in if they are local to you (and I may get one when I go back this Christmas 😄)?

I've looked into the "Gossen MetraHIT Tech" - 420€ is the best offer I could find.
They're certainly nice meters and I considered saving up a bit for them - but those Agilent ones seem just too right (also I like HP ever since I used to work in the IT).

EDIT:
Fuckings will be removed, as 1 person contacted me and (without going into details) stood up to my accusations and cleared some things up - that needs to be appreciated. So in case you made any conclusions and happened to guess the right guy (speaking of the regular here on VOGONS) all is back to a cool level there. The one time poster will still get mentioned negatively in the documentation 😁
The cleared space on the silkscreen will be used for adding explainations for the jumpers - a more positive and useful thing anyways.

I've also decided that there will be a maximum order of 3 cards per person for now - this goes with the fact that my chosen PCB plant can produce 120 cards per order and allows me to have a bigger buffer in case something goes horribly wrong. I might place a second order at a later point and contributors/donors can hop in there once again - without having to donate again of course.

"Progress"

I might steal this awesome idea for the final version tho:
http://irokos.untergrund.net/titan/projects/o … 037683103_o.jpg (Overdrive cartridge PCBs by Titan)

I like the logo!! really like it!

Maybe it would look better without the explanation line? And "e" in "engineered" shouldn't be capital as it isn't included into the abbreviation.
If we put just a logo it would leave room for fantasy for those who are unfamiliar with the project. E.g. someone might find a hint for Ultrasound Silver (Arg[entum]+UltraSound), etc.

My part of the artwork is almost ready btw 😀

So, the second logo is finally ready:

MANY thanks to Beegle for his great help with the fonts! The actual font I decided to use was Zamenhof Solid proposed by him. And thanks to the fact he found that font, the commemorative inscription became feasible 😀
Please find attached two variants of the artwork (archived). Anyone is free to use them for any non-commercial purpose related only to this project (with due respect of any possible rights the original owner might still have).

Very nice, hard1k. I was blown away at how meticulously you recreated that logo with every little detail. Kudos!

Nice logo =) Now all we need is a big box to put it on ^^
(Not joking, I'm actually thinking of making myself a box and printing thin on it)

Some demoscene/crackerscene/artscene styled PCB-art (preview) - done by alien^pdx, minor adjustments by me.

This will be included in the copper/exposed copper/soldermask 😀

This last one is a great logo, but I feel like it doesn't really fit the GUS. Maybe that's just me, kudos to alien^pdx in any case 😀.

This is such a feel good thread. What started out as an idea for a project, has quickly shaped up to be an amazing piece of hardware!

Well, I wanted to give some kind of nod to the demoscene, since they were the folks that gave the GUS a large boost afterall.

It'll probably go on the back side as a header for the thanks section or on it's own (since that's the only space of the PCB that has a decent amount of unused space left) the front will still get the more traditional logo adapted from the UltraSound lettering on the silkscreen.

shock__ wrote:

Well, I wanted to give some kind of nod to the demoscene, since they were the folks that gave the GUS a large boost afterall.

Sure, I can totally agree with that 😀. It's just that stylistically, it doesn't really stick with the GUS, at least in my opinion. It's still a great logo though!

anyway, that logo is freaking awesome! 😉

Lets see the results

While there are no new comments in the thread, I'd like to share some ideas to revive it a little bit.

Of everything mentioned above, there are some things that haven't been implemented yet:
* Adapting the audio/joystick ports so standard brackets from donor cards can be used (have we finally confirmed that the sequence of the ports corresponds to the brackets we'll use later?)
* Add pinheaders for all audio ports (are they already there and I just can't see them?..)
* Add Waveblaster connector (has this idea been finally abandoned?)
* Add integrated MIF-IPC clone (same as above)
* Make MONOIN and MONOOUT available as pin-headers on the board (marked as PCSPK_IN and PCSPK_OUT) - I still think this could be very nice and useful feature indeed
* Add swappable OPAMPs (I just can't even see if there are any OPAMPs on the card, if there are none, then we don't have anything to swap 😀 )