开云体育

If you haven't seen yet Mr. Carlon's Lab just did a teardown and restore with custom LED's and driver:?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrmwql2msbU&t=639s

On Mon, 27 Jan 2020, Dave Wise wrote:

OK, I've put everything together finally for the first run as a whole and it
worked like a charm. Not fully assembled yet (covers not installed) but
otherwise pretty complete.

There are still screwups so the main board (that big one replacing the
existing amplifier) will have to be re-spun -- 1V and 1mV calibration
trimpots swapped, all trimpots CW/CCW also swapped somehow (it makes it
_LESS_ sensitive when turned CW i.e. moves the needle CCW,) probably try to
find better trimpots instead of those single-turn cermet chinese blue ones.
All other boards are almost fine (RGB LED silk is backwards on the front
LEDs PCB but that is not biggie, won't do anything with that) and work
exactly as expected. Internal wiring changes all tested and worked OK (not
all that extensive but anyway.)

All ranges work OK. 3uV is wandering within one upper scale small division
(half of lower scale division) that is tolerable at such sensitivity and
shitty probes I used for input. Thermal EMF from those probes is significant
at 3uV full scale so better wiring is needed for such sensitive
applications. Chinese probes connected to series 1Mohm/100ohm AB Standard
Resistors (100ohm on far end of the probes) give something like 300nV EMF at
room temperature that is readily measured by HP419A :) Shorting input
terminals with copper bar makes it return to zero that it held steady
without any noticeable drift for 4 hours.

Have a lot of photos from the process but no time to organize those right
now and design a web page. It is not finished yet anyway until that main
board is re-spun that would take me a week or two to re-design, another week
for JLCPCB to make and ship and then some time to assemble everything.

Can put some unsorted unedited photos on my web site as one zip file if
anybody is interested but that would be raw photos and archive would be
huge. Will process everything and write a web page for those when done (that
would also include all schematics, PIC source and hex and so on) but have to
finish everything first.

I wish I had a 419 I could try this on. Quite the magnum opus, Sergey. I
look forward to studying it.

I too played with replacing neon with LED. (In my 740B DC Voltage Standard
/ Differential Voltmeter.) I used Lumiled "Luxeon" series phosphor-white
parts. You can easily get 10x or 100x the illumination that was provided
by the neon lamps. The limiting factor is avoiding reducing the input
impedance too much. I found that no matter what intensity and duty cycle I
used, I could not improve much over the original neon excitation. One
interesting and frustrating observation was that performance improved
greatly if I kept the excitation running 24x7. Leave them dark overnight
and next morning they're near-dead all over again.

Fabrication was finicky because I had to insulate to 500V to meet spec. I
programmed what I had on hand, PIC12F675. I included adjustments for
frequency, duty cycle, and modulator-demodulator delay. The latter is
helpful for capturing maximum efficiency if you use H11F1 in the
demodulator where its offset and TC are don't-care but it switches so fast
it's out of phase with the modulator.

But since I had already replaced the entire modem assembly with a quad of
H11F1, hybrid LED/H11F1 is bench experiments and not actually tried in a
running instrument.

Regards,
Dave Wise

I had so much fun with the programming. The 740B has two separate chopper
amps, running at different frequency, 162Hz and 95Hz. I programmed one
12F675 to excite both. Originally I interrupted every 65us (greatest
common divisor of the two periods) but the ISR ate up almost all of the
processor cycles. I wrote a program for my PC to explore other divisors,
and discovered several that were within 0.1%: 79, 101, 121, and 129. That
gave me breathing room. By the way, anyone wants the program, just ask.
________________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Sergey Kubushyn via Groups.Io <ksi@...>
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2020 11:35 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] HP 419A Null Voltmeter - Purchase

On Sun, 26 Jan 2020, Marco Marchesi wrote:

Oh, this is a rare find :)

I have 2 here and none of those worked properly. I spent a year trying to
get them to work with small quick fixes and that didn't work.

So I bit a bullet and now finishing a full rework using most of the parts
but throwing away and adding quite a lot of new stuff.

First of all I'm keeping photoresistor assembly. It is a very low leakage
part with no chopper signal feed-thru. However I'm removing neons and
replace that neon board with an assembly made from 2 small boards -- one
base/carrier board having exactly same dimensions as original neon board and
two very narrow thin boards replacing neons. Those have 4 LEDs on them, 2 on
each side facing photoresistors. I don't know what photoresistors they used
there -- it might be CdS or CdTe or a mixed one -- and they are sensitive to
different colors. This is why I'm using Yellow (~590nm) and Red (~680nm)
LEDs on each side that cover any of the photoresistor kinds. Neon has 2
major spectral lines, one at 585.2nm, another at 703.2nm so I'm close to
covering both. I do already have boards, experimenting with different LEDs.
That is almost over, waiting for a shipment of final parts (1206 LEDs from
Würth Elektronik) from DigiKey, expected to arrive this Wednesday.

Then, entire back part with power supply and chopper driver is replaced with
one expensive relatively complex board. It carries 2 18650 LiIon batteries,
very low noise switching converter to +/-15V with very low noise linear
regulators providing +/-13.2V for instrument power, isolated low noise Null
Voltage supply (that replaces original mercury battery), and a small PIC
(16F15323) that drives chopper LEDs with proper waveforms and Power LED
which starts flashing when batteries are about to die.

This board also carries full featured batterry charger and off-line flyback
SMPS feeding that charger so batteries can be charged in situ, without
removing them by plugging mains cable and pushing "Quick Charge" button. It
takes 3 hours to fully charge batteries and then they can run for more than
24 hours without re-charging.

That is quite big and expensive board -- it uses several expensive chips
from TI and Analog Devices (actually Linear Technology), couple of
transformers and some other stuff -- but it is well worth it. It is 4-layer
board with lot of attention put to thermal design as the entire charging
part generates lots of heat and some parts run at 80-90 degrees Celsium
under peak load, when battery is fully discharged.

All parts of that board are debugged and tested and I do already have PCBs
and stencil on hand. The only part left is a small thin PCB holding 3 fancy
TVS diodes that acts as heatsink for those -- it is already ordered from
JLCPCB but it is Chinese New Year now so they will only start making panels
and stencil for those starting February 1 and it takes ~5 days from start to
getting them delivered by DHL Express.

Then there is another small board that goes between front panel and
sub-panel. Nothing fancy there, just one RGB LED (RG for charger and B for
Power indicator) and one Orange LED with a small bridge and current source
running off mains voltage to indicate that HP419A is plugged into mains
that it should not be for normal operation. There are also 2 LED lenses
installed into front panel, one into existing "Line" neon hole enlarged to
round .281" for the lens and additional one above "Quick Charge" button. I
do have those boards and already have 2 assembled and installed in my 2
419As.

But that is not all yet :) I do also have a new main board replacing
existing one with proper capacitors and other stuff. This one is essentially
a copy of what was there but with some snafus fixed and better parts. This
one is untested as of right now although I have the PCBs and even have one
board fully assembled.

I expect to finish everything in 3 weeks, maybe a month. I'm documenting
everything as I go making lots of pictures. Once it is done I will release
all schematics and everything else into public access.

As I order PCBs ten at a time I will have 8 full sets of bare PCBs left when
I'm done that I could give out for those brave enough to undertake their own
rebuilds for a nominal charge (just shipping and what I actually paid for
those boards that is not much.)

Stay tuned if interested :)

Hi All,
I'm looking for this unit in WORKING condition.
Is someone willing to sell?

Let me know, Thank you

Cheers

---
*
* KSI@home KOI8 Net < > The impossible we do immediately. *
* Las Vegas NV, USA < > Miracles require 24-hour notice. *
*

Got a new 3.5 Female cal kit today and a thumb drive with the data. ?It’s non HP but the cal data seems not bad ? Not that I really know much. But did get a chart of numbers ?

Moved the .CK and XKT files to floppy. ?Can see them using file utils back can’t figure out how to load them. ?

Any help is appreciated. ?I am hoping not to have to manually key them in. ?

Thanks
Dave

?

JF,

Thanks, I have contacted you, (I think), through your contact in on this forum.

Sorry for the delay on the response. It does not have option 004. I tried what Don B had said about leaving it plugged in. I usually don't. I do have a GPS 10Mhz standard that I leave on 24/7. Even with this plugged in I still get the error on start up. I left the HP3336b in an on all day while I was working in my lab. Near the end of the day it stated to make and odd buzz type noise. It kind of sounded like it was coming from the power supply area. I turned it off. I was checking around it and it seemed that the cap C5 was hot compared to C8. C5 was a 50 deg higher then C8. I used a infra-red temp gun. I pulled the power supply out and removed C5. I tested it on the tester and it passed ok. The ESR was .005. I can't do a leakage test on it. The?capacitor is a 1000uf 35v. I have a 1000uf 50v I think I will try to see if it is the problem. I will let you know what happens.

On 2020-03-02 3:34 PM, walter shawlee wrote:

Further to the list I posted, I went to our offsite storage unit, and
found another big pile of HP CRTs, including many new ones.

the additional ones include (all prefix 5083):?
-4454, (2) -5152 storage, -3552, -4531, -9010? specan, 3976 NIB, -2570
storage, 9083 NIB,
-5793 NIB, -4052, -3932,?

I'm looking for a CRT to restore an HP Storage 1331A XY.

The original part # was 5083-2578 but I don't know what compatibility
with other tubes is like.

If anyone has a copy of the 1331A operator's / service manual, I'd be
interested, because the online copy is poor quality.

--Toby

plus 2090-0384 (Toshiba) E9054B31

I am posting ll the info on stuff day
here:?
and this year you can get items remotely, without coming to sphere, for
your convenience.
I hope these CRTs can help somebody restore their favorite HP item.

also happy to swap for other HP items, like MSIB cables, accessories for
the my 8753A, etc.
all the best,
walter? (walter2 -at- sphere.bc.ca)
sphere research corp.

On 3/2/20 4:04 PM, walter shawlee wrote:

The E5515C series is in fact discontinued, not current.

That must be a recent thing; I got an upgrade for my C to an E about
two years ago. (for actual cellular development work)

the options specifically say that other frequency coverage is possible
(270-1300Mhz at least), I am trying to find out how to do it. the docs
are not especially helpful in this regard. looks like maybe option 3 can
do at least some of it, but I have no idea what that involves. I thought
there might be a group dedicated to modifying this box as there is for
other hp items, as it has some great functionality, including an SA.

Maybe. But why not just get a real spectrum analyzer and signal
generator? Just sayin'..

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

The E5515C series is in fact discontinued, not current.
the options specifically say that other frequency coverage is possible (270-1300Mhz at least), I am trying to find out how to do it. the docs are not especially helpful in this regard. looks like maybe option 3 can do at least some of it, but I have no idea what that involves. I thought there might be a group dedicated to modifying this box as there is for other hp items, as it has some great functionality, including an SA.

-walter--

Walter Shawlee 2
Sphere Research Corp. 3394 Sunnyside Rd.
West Kelowna, BC, V1Z 2V4 CANADA
Phone: +1 (250-769-1834 -:-
+We're all in one boat, no matter how it looks to you. (WS2)
+All you need is love. (John Lennon)
+But, that doesn't mean other things don't come in handy. (WS2)
+Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us.
We are not the only experiment. (R. Buckminster Fuller)

Hi Steve,

Page 3 of the *CONFIG* menu for the sync settings, not the CAL menu.

-mark

On 3/2/20 3:26 PM, walter shawlee wrote:

I got one of these (working) off ebay, with option 2 (2nd generator),
and would like to expand the RF coverage range. I understand there is an
option for this (I have no use for the cell features), and would like to
go lower in frequency.? is this a hardware thing, or just a software
patch to enable the range change?? if so, how can I do it?

Is there a user group or discussion thread on this like there is for the
E7495 (an amazing bit of portable technology) that I can go to?? is
there a way to back up the hard drive or replace it?? this one has to be
pretty old now.

Not necessarily; these are current (or very nearly current) analyzers.

I don't know if there's any way to expand the range. This is a
cellular test device; it's very tightly tailored for, well, you know,
cellular testing. I will never understand why people keep trying to
repurpose stuff like this to be general in nature when they're not.

also, any actual hardware manuals exist for this?? the keysight stuff is
very modest is this regard.
any and all help greatly appreciated, this is a nice looking piece of
hardware.

There are hundreds of manuals for the E5515 series of analyzers, but
no hardware information at all.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

Further to the list I posted, I went to our offsite storage unit, and found another big pile of HP CRTs, including many new ones.

the additional ones include (all prefix 5083):?
-4454, (2) -5152 storage, -3552, -4531, -9010? specan, 3976 NIB, -2570 storage, 9083 NIB,
-5793 NIB, -4052, -3932,?

plus 2090-0384 (Toshiba) E9054B31

I am posting ll the info on stuff day here:?
and this year you can get items remotely, without coming to sphere, for your convenience.
I hope these CRTs can help somebody restore their favorite HP item.

also happy to swap for other HP items, like MSIB cables, accessories for the my 8753A, etc.
all the best,
walter? (walter2 -at- sphere.bc.ca)
sphere research corp.

I got one of these (working) off ebay, with option 2 (2nd generator), and would like to expand the RF coverage range. I understand there is an option for this (I have no use for the cell features), and would like to go lower in frequency.? is this a hardware thing, or just a software patch to enable the range change?? if so, how can I do it?

Is there a user group or discussion thread on this like there is for the E7495 (an amazing bit of portable technology) that I can go to?? is there a way to back up the hard drive or replace it?? this one has to be pretty old now.

also, any actual hardware manuals exist for this?? the keysight stuff is very modest is this regard.
any and all help greatly appreciated, this is a nice looking piece of hardware.

all the best,
walter (walter2 -at- sphere.bc.ca)
sphere research corp.

Hello all,
just joined the group. My second HP piece is next to me, a 5345A with a 5354A plugin. The 5345A seems to work fine, but the plugin doesn't. My investigations are now on the A1 mixer.
I opened it and I found a broken input C1 and a missing CR1, 1900-0023. Hmm, up to now I'm not able to find any information about this diode except that it is a schottky diode. Has anyone information about this diode? Possible replacement?
Any pointer is appreciated.

TIA,
Andreas

At 2020-03-02 08:56 AM, Mark Litwack wrote:

On the screen issue, try the display centering adjustments on the second page of the CAL menu.

Thank you, I was hoping for something like that. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem. Moving the display down just moves the cut line down with it - the top half of the row with the hp logo is cut off, along with the entire first row with the date and time.

If that doesn't help. over-scan and centering problems can also be caused by the wrong sync.? For that, check the third page of the CONFIG menus.? There's a button there called DEFAULT SYNC to reset the sync settings to NRM (normal) mode which are best for the internal CRT.

My page 3 has only a DEFAULT CAL DATA? entry. When I press that, text pops up at the left edge of the 3rd row of the graticule saying "PASSCODE NEEDED". The picture below shows what was captured by KISS-488 pretending to be an HPGL plotter. Interestingly, the error text (I had been entering bogus commands via Telnet) is not shown at all on the captured screen, but the hp logo (plotter commands, not text) and the date / time above it are shown correctly.

On 2/23/20 3:53 AM, ChrisBeee via Groups.Io wrote:

With the help of Dave and one of his NIM bins, one of my beauties, a
/hp/ 5583A SCA, likely will come back to life soon...
For a good reason, the members of the GammaSpectroscopy Group merely
rely on today's technology with a lot of software involved. If you want
to check your neighbor's imported garden decoration rocks at the next
BBQ, you likely don't want to carry a 5401A along. On the other hand,
turning these neat geared dials and see the numbers rolling is
absolutely priceless!

It's true that the interests on the GammaSpectroscopy list are mostly
about gamma spectroscopy measurements and materials, and less about the
instrumentation. The common focus on using PC sound cards for data
acquisition really makes me twitch, that's for sure.

I do quite a bit of that sort of stuff here (NOT using PC sound
cards); my interest in that area is more in the instrumentation side of
things than most people on that mailing list.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

On 3/2/20 2:46 PM, ChrisBeee via Groups.Io wrote:

just in case my e-mail reply to your kind offer ended in your spam
folder: you got mail ;-)

Yup, I've been nonfunctional due to painkillers following a small oral
surgical procedure. I should have that info for you by tomorrow.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA