I recently snagged a Valhalla 2703 AC calibrator off of Ebay for less than $200 shipped.  It's a pretty nice machine that goes from 1 uV to 1200V without an external amp.   And it weighs less than my Fluke 5200A alone.

It was shown powered up with "-" in all the LED digits.  The opening bid was low enough to risk it,  so I put in a low ball bid (and luckily nobody else did).   It arrived a couple days later in pretty good shape.   I opened it up and saw nothing out of whack.  No magic smoke smell,  etc.  The fan was rather noisy and the the calibration key was missing.

The processor, eprom, and ram chips were in sockets so I reseated them and powered it up again.  Voila!  Display said "Hello" and everything works fine.   Running it past the HP 3458A's showed all ranges were in spec.  I replaced the fan,  pulled the calibration key switch and took it to my local locksmith (got the "oh, no it's him again" look).  2 hours and $12 later I had two calibration keys.

I've had it running for a couple of days and the readings are very stable.  I'll let it stew in its own juices for a couple of weeks and then run the calibration sequence.

Good job Mark!

I also have a Valhalla 2703. Mine gets past the "Hello" turn-on sequence OK.
Display and front panel control seem OK. But when I try putting its output
in "Operate" mode, it instantly switches back to "Standby". On its 120V
range (and higher), its red HV symbol flashes for an instant before it plops
back to standby. So I suspect it's automatically shutting-down due to an
"open sense loop" or some other cause of over-voltage?

I've not performed any troubleshooting in it yet. ...It's just sitting on
the shelf, waiting for further action. I've not yet looked for an online
manual. I doubt there's one online, but if you run across that, let me know.

Keep us informed as to how stable your 2703 seems.

Greg

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Sims" holrum@hotmail.com
To: volt-nuts@febo.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 6:02 PM
Subject: [volt-nuts] Valhalla 2703 AC calibrator

I recently snagged a Valhalla 2703 AC calibrator off of Ebay for less than
$200 shipped. It's a pretty nice machine that goes from 1 uV to 1200V
without an external amp. And it weighs less than my Fluke 5200A alone.

It was shown powered up with "-" in all the LED digits. The opening bid was
low enough to risk it, so I put in a low ball bid (and luckily nobody else
did). It arrived a couple days later in pretty good shape. I opened it up
and saw nothing out of whack. No magic smoke smell, etc. The fan was rather
noisy and the the calibration key was missing.

The processor, eprom, and ram chips were in sockets so I reseated them and
powered it up again. Voila! Display said "Hello" and everything works fine.
Running it past the HP 3458A's showed all ranges were in spec. I replaced
the fan, pulled the calibration key switch and took it to my local locksmith
(got the "oh, no it's him again" look). 2 hours and $12 later I had two
calibration keys.

I've had it running for a couple of days and the readings are very stable.
I'll let it stew in its own juices for a couple of weeks and then run the
calibration sequence.

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