EEVblog #420 - What Is Calibration?

Peter Daly, metrologist at Agilents world leading standards & calibration laboratory in Melbourne explains what calibration is.

EEVblog Main Web Site:
EEVblog Amazon Store:
Donations:
Projects:
Electronics Info Wiki:

[EEVblog]

That's an adjustment. They will inform you it's out of spec and ask if you want it to be tweaked back into spec or left alone for your own investigation etc.

[SproutyPottedPlant]

I cannot solder or do much with electronics due to vision problens but still really enjoy the EEVblog!! Love learning about it and mains electric too!!

[casperhito]

I found your channel because I was building LED aquarium lights and had to learn to solder. From fish to dip chips, my interests have certainly broadened.

[EEVblog]

I'm back. No, that didn't end up happening due to a few internal issues. I just visited the new cal lab.

[robertbackhaus]

Consider the circuit that is in place. Wires run from a transformer, down a number of streets, with many houses connected to each phase. The only places it may be metered is at the substation and at each of the thousands of houses connected.
They can detect if a suburb is using more power than the sum of all the meters attached, but that only brings it down to suburb level. Someone Bratsville is leaching power.
In order to pin it down, they'd need to add a meter to your power pole. Easy to spot.

[CH_Pechiar]

Excellent! I like these type of informative videos from people that specialize in a particular topic.
Question: what goes after calibration then? ie, I take my instrument to calibration and verification and the result is that my unit is out of specs. What is the name of the process that the gray beard guy does to my unit to bring it back to specs, so that further calibrations are ok?

[EEVblog]

Awesome, we have another one hooked for life!

[uzaiyaro]

Congratulations on passing 10 million views!

[olivercoles]

Not what I was expecting from a 4:20 vid....

In all seriousness though, interesting stuff :D

[CampKohler]

What's happening to YT vids? This is the second one today that looks like it cuts off before the end. The last words were, "When you retire it, you still have to get it calibrated, " and not a word more. Was there any more to this one?

[EEVblog]

Yup, got a bunch of footage on that, including a mobile cal lab in shipping container!

[EBenderTheRobot]

IMO, This video kicks ass.
Yeah, it's a dry topic. However, if after taking measurements...  Can you believe them? When there's risk involved, this stuff is very important.
This brought together a bunch of stuff seen during my career into perspective.
And to boot, there wasn't any silly drama. TU.

[costyytsoc]

are we gonna see that cal lab? did you make a video there?

[thisoldguy]

Hey Dave, are you in Melbourne getting your Agilent 3000 X scope upgraded to 1GHz?

[EEVblog]

I was in Melbourne and didn't have the ability to do, edit and upload a teardown.

[tracymcintire]

I love that final bit... But he just killed my mental picture of Michael Gambon with a long grey beard waving a wand over your multimeter... *Sigh*

[EEVblog]

There is a LOT of viewer mail. I know what's in some of them and they will require a substantial time investment to cover properly. It will take many more videos.

[EEVblog]

They make all kinds of equipment ranging from reasonably low cost to stratospheric expensive. They do not chase the "race to the bottom". If we didn't have big T&M companies like Agilent making serious products, doing serious research, and maintaining the knowledge in world class metrology labs like this, then innovation cannot happen. If you want a cheap POS, there are plenty of companies that will cater to your needs.

[aerofart]

Hey DAVE! With all due respect to Agilent and mr Daly, what happened to teardown Tuesday and when exactly do you plan to open up all that viewer mail?

[steamcastle]

Now this was a good video.
what type of equipment would you get calibration ?
Would you do it to a multimeter?
and if you not doing production how important is this?