[Sneap] NIM module vendors

[Klaus Bahner]

Paul,
 
Most of our measurement setup is permanent, this is it usually has not to be
changed, if not some radical changes/upgrades are done. Hence I usually opt
for a non-modular approach with equipment specifically built or bought for
the task. Looking around in the test and measurement equipment catalouges of
vendors you find many things, which can replace specific (expensive) NIM
functions. Counters, Ratemeters and so on can usually easily be replaced by
bench top frequency counters. Pulseforming, delaying and gating can very
often be done with (arbitrary) function generators. If you buy HV supplies
from a HV voltage supply vendor you can get better spec'd bias supplies at
much lower cost as when you buy an corresponding NIM module. Finally much
electronics can be specifically built in house, depending on whether you
have an electronics workshop or are an good electronics engineer yourself. 
Sometimes it is also worth to look into PC based data-aquisition systems,
much can be done in software - still very often requiring the ability to do
software development in house.
In my experience, the only modules which are very hard to replace or build
on your own are pulse shaping amplifiers for detectors and pulse height
analysis ADCs. These are so specific tasks that I'm not aware of any
alternative. 
 
Regards,
Klaus


 
Klaus,

I would like to know what you use instead of NIM based modules. They always
seem expensive to me also,  so I often get reconditioned modules from OETech
(http://www.oetech.com/), but if you only need a few channels they seem
fairly economical overall.

Regards,
-Paul Voytas

 

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