A dead battery in the RAM backup is the first place I'd look.
FWIWE,
-John
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Hello,
I am considering the purchase of an HP 35665A Dynamic Signal Analyzer for
my home lab. I have located a bargain priced unit; however, the unit
displays the following in a message box. "Calibration Failure (Change
state of AUTO CAL to remove this message.)" Page 1 of the test log seems
to show all items passing; however, page 2 indicates the unit Fails "Quick
Confidence". The instrument appears to be in fairly good condition
cosmetically. The CRT appears to be in good shape and the menus can be
navigated with the front panel controls.
I have little experience with this instrument, but have used HP 3562A and
HP 3563A instruments years ago. Of course these units were owned by my
employer and were well maintained by our internal Calibration and Repair
Lab. My desire for the unit is to help with developing some hobby
projects that I am working on with my son. He is studying electrical
engineering, at Georgia Tech, and I am trying to give him hands-on
experience with some interesting equipment.
I am an experienced electrical engineer with a lot of background in
controls, and analog design, and am not afraid to tear into just about
anything to attempt repair. However, I know some of these older HP
instruments include custom Hybrids, and other components, that might be
hard to find.
Does anyone know if there is a common, or most likely, failure that
generates this message, or is it a "catch-all" type condition that could
take a lot of effort to resolve? I have not been able to locate a full
complement of manuals for this instrument, so my hope is that perhaps the
"Auto Cal" may simply require an external cable be in-place from the
source to the inputs, or some other simple explanation.
The seller is only asking a few hundred dollars, but for about $400 to
$500 more I can get a 100% working unit that has been calibrated. I am
just looking for some guidance as to the effort I might be facing to
resolve the Auto Calibration failure. Your input could help me decide to
take a risk, or to instead lay out the extra funds to avoid ending up with
a boat anchor. I enjoy the challenge of repairing old equipment, but at
this time I already have enough items in need of repair :-)
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
Kind Regards,
Joe
Joe Egan
joe.egan@...
