Kuba,
I have an HP 8568B at the moment and would like to see something like you
describe developed for it, and for the 8566B too, which I hope to acquire
soon. The output specs are widely available and there were many units
produced that now have aging displays. From 1978 to 1997 if I'm not
mistaken. If I were making something like you mention, I'd start with this
market and compete with the color LCD replacement currently available at a
hefty price. I don't have the knowledge to do that though, and I wish you
well with this endeavor. I'd be happy to take measurements of my SA's
outputs or evaluate a prototype for you.
Steve
On Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 7:23 PM, Kuba Ober <ober.14@...>wrote:
**
What is the speed of the old Tek and HP X/Y monitors?
The question is: are those fast enough to be used to replace
what was inside the box of various otherwise useful HP
instruments.
I'm also more than willing to have potentially extra functionality
included, perhaps bypassing some of the circuitry in the instrument.
My favorite would be to have a swept FFT by taking in directly
the baseband output from a SA -- with a 16 bit ADC it should be feasible.
I'm also looking at digitizing the frequency of the LO outputs from
a SA to obtain precise frequency for any part of the display.
I think I previously incorrectly said digitizing IF -- that's of course
possible, but it'd be the last IF if anything. Inputting any number of
LOs and digitizing their frequency should be very simple, as would be
calculating the resulting center frequency. I think the hardest part would
be to make sure my device won't pollute the LOs, so I'd be learning some
new tricks too.
My starting point is to run my 7L14 with a mainframe with no CRT, then to
tap LO1 and LO2 outputs for precise center frequency, then to tap directly
into the last IF output before the video processor (detector, LOG/LIN,
digitizer).
I can't really afford to get various other instruments that this would work
with,
so I thought it'll be easier to ask for ideas instead of having to rummage
through downloads of HP manuals.
So my appeal is as follows, to make it easy and technical: if you have a SA
or another instrument that you'd like to get a replacement display for,
give me
the specs on its X-Y-Z outputs, and also on the LO frequency ranges and
levels -- obviously if those LOs are available as outputs without
disassembly.
That's give me some idea as to how to set up the signal processing (gains,
bandwidths, etc).
Kuba
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