Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
Most of my collection has numbers below ¡°52,¡± so I agree the larger numbers are rare.?
Also note that all of my examples are 1969 ¡°models.¡± I wonder if HP went with your ¡°Possibility A¡± in order to keep the old serial number format for stuff started in 1969??
On Fri, Sep 2, 2022 at 5:06 AM Jim Adney < jadney@...> wrote: On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:07 PM, Jeremy Nichols wrote:
my HP-412A carries serial number 0978A19963. 78th week of 1969? A third example: the 3444A DC Multi-function plug-in for my 3440A DVM ?carries serial number 0973A07281. There must be some additional information we¡¯re missing. ?
Others have mentioned similar examples, and I have to admit that I don't know, but I can suggest two possibilities:
Possibility One: Some projects that HP started in a given year but ran into the next year, might have been given a year code in the year the project was started, or mostly associated with, in order to keep clear what year the project "belonged to." So the week designation would have been 52 + the following year's week. I would expect this to be a rather rare exception to the rule.
Possibility Two: HP wasn't really counting weeks, they were counting something smaller. Suppose you thought one day was too small an increment, plus it requires 3 digits to count up to 365. Dividing the year into weeks gives 52, which only takes 2 digits, but doesn't make good use of those 2 digits. Dividing the year into 5 day increments gets us up to 73 divisions per year, which makes good use of 2 digits but still leaves out both of your examples above. Dividing the year into 4 day increments gets us 91 divisions per day, which makes VERY good use of 2 digits. Since calendars that show the number of days from the start of the year were common back then, this might have seemed awkward, but it would have been easy to figure.
Personally, I lean toward Possibility One. Does anyone have examples of week codes above 78 or above 91? The week code on each of my HP instruments is less than 52.?
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Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:45 PM, <n8zmTWH@...> wrote:
Never heard that part of it before. So who bought the first A models?
It's still possible that Disney bought his "special" B models before any A models had been sold.
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Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:07 PM, Jeremy Nichols wrote:
my HP-412A carries serial number 0978A19963. 78th week of 1969? A third example: the 3444A DC Multi-function plug-in for my 3440A DVM ?carries serial number 0973A07281. There must be some additional information we¡¯re missing. ?
Others have mentioned similar examples, and I have to admit that I don't know, but I can suggest two possibilities: Possibility One: Some projects that HP started in a given year but ran into the next year, might have been given a year code in the year the project was started, or mostly associated with, in order to keep clear what year the project "belonged to." So the week designation would have been 52 + the following year's week. I would expect this to be a rather rare exception to the rule. Possibility Two: HP wasn't really counting weeks, they were counting something smaller. Suppose you thought one day was too small an increment, plus it requires 3 digits to count up to 365. Dividing the year into weeks gives 52, which only takes 2 digits, but doesn't make good use of those 2 digits. Dividing the year into 5 day increments gets us up to 73 divisions per year, which makes good use of 2 digits but still leaves out both of your examples above. Dividing the year into 4 day increments gets us 91 divisions per day, which makes VERY good use of 2 digits. Since calendars that show the number of days from the start of the year were common back then, this might have seemed awkward, but it would have been easy to figure. Personally, I lean toward Possibility One. Does anyone have examples of week codes above 78 or above 91? The week code on each of my HP instruments is less than 52.?
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Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
> There's one (maybe more) exception to this: On HP pocket calculators, the date code?IS?the year and week of manufacture.
I don't think that's true, at least not universally.
I have several HP35s with the date code 1143 and it appears many were made with this number - too many for a week's batch, I think.
ref : http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/the_hp-35_calculator.html
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Re: Hp 8590a spectrum analyzer
Yes it's a 50 ohm terminator, not sure if it matters but I bought a 4 pack of NOS HP 50 ohm . I used panasonic? caps. If you need a terminator I'll send you one .
Thanks
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Re: Hp 8590a spectrum analyzer
Interesting! Is there a terminator on the 1st lo output? I do not have one on mine.
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Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
Thanks, Jeff -- I'd forgotten about the pricing bit. Time to re-read
the book.
Someone bought the A models, but I've always wondered who that might
have been. Over the years, I've been given two of them, but I have
no 200Bs in my collection. Go figure!
-- Cheers,
Tom
--
Prof. Thomas H. Lee
Allen Ctr., Rm. 205
350 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4070
On 9/1/2022 21:48, Jeff Kruth via
groups.io wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
IIRC, the story is in "Bill and Dave" a great book
about HP. The A was a mistake in pricing, Bill & Dave
guessed at the price (like $67 or so) and found they couldnt
make any money at that price. Disney came along and because
they wanted "changes" it became a "special", the B model,
and H&P upped the price to cover their collective butt
(like $78.00)....There may not have been many A models
sold.....
Really god book, if you dont have it in your library,
pick up a copy. You will like it!
73
Jeff Kruth
?
In a message dated 9/1/2022 11:45:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,
n8zmTWH@... writes:
?
Hi
Tom¡Never heard that part of it before. So who
bought the first A models?
?
?
?
And that was in
addition to calling it the model 200, with an "A"
suffix to boot. Dave Packard was very, very smart.
The model that Disney ended up buying was the 200B, by
the way. The 200A was a 35Hz-35kHz unit. Disney wanted
that shifted downward, to 20Hz-20kHz. Bill Hewlett
made some fast tweaks, and the 200B was shipped off to
a happy Disney.
--Cheers,
Tom
--
Prof. Thomas H. Lee
Allen Ctr., Rm. 205
350 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4070
The story goes that the first HP
product was the 200A audio generator. The serial
numbers started at 1000 so that their first
customer, Disney, wouldn¡¯t think it was the first
product they¡¯d ever built and sold. Disney bought
7 of them to use to calibrate the sound for the
movie Fantasia.
?
Tom, N8ZM
?
?
Trivia: Serial
numbers of the form ¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear
as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such instruments would have been
made in (late, usually) 1969, when the change in
format was underway. I suspect this was a
practical matter: serial number tags would have
been ordered in quantity and in advance of
production. Production management, if several
hundred of the old serial tags were in stock,
would lean towards using up the old ones before
bearing the expense of ordering new ones.?
?
On Thu, Sep 1,
2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek <amdx@...>
wrote:
I have two
meters both older I know because of the AC
plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I
checked several groups I frequent and couldn't
find it.
?
????????????
--
?
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
IIRC, the story is in "Bill and Dave" a great book about HP. The A was a mistake in pricing, Bill & Dave guessed at the price (like $67 or so) and found they couldnt make any money at that price. Disney came along and because they wanted "changes" it became a "special", the B model, and H&P upped the price to cover their collective butt (like $78.00)....There may not have been many A models sold.....
Really god book, if you dont have it in your library, pick up a copy. You will like it!
73
Jeff Kruth
?
In a message dated 9/1/2022 11:45:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, n8zmTWH@... writes:
?
Hi Tom¡Never heard that part of it before. So who bought the first A models?
?
?
From: [email protected] < [email protected]> On Behalf Of Tom Lee Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2022 11:41 PM To: [email protected]Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
?
And that was in addition to calling it the model 200, with an "A" suffix to boot. Dave Packard was very, very smart.
The model that Disney ended up buying was the 200B, by the way. The 200A was a 35Hz-35kHz unit. Disney wanted that shifted downward, to 20Hz-20kHz. Bill Hewlett made some fast tweaks, and the 200B was shipped off to a happy Disney.
--Cheers,
Tom
--
Prof. Thomas H. Lee
Allen Ctr., Rm. 205
350 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4070
The story goes that the first HP product was the 200A audio generator. The serial numbers started at 1000 so that their first customer, Disney, wouldn¡¯t think it was the first product they¡¯d ever built and sold. Disney bought 7 of them to use to calibrate the sound for the movie Fantasia.
?
Tom, N8ZM
?
?
Trivia: Serial numbers of the form ¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969, when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was a practical matter: serial number tags would have been ordered in quantity and in advance of production. Production management, if several hundred of the old serial tags were in stock, would lean towards using up the old ones before bearing the expense of ordering new ones.?
?
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek <amdx@...> wrote:
I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked several groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
--
?
|
Seeking a HP 70000 module retainer screw casting
I just received a HP 70001A Mainframe containing 70841B Pattern Generator and 70311A 3.3GHz Clock Source modules.
On the USA leg of its journey to Australia it was poorly packed and the box dropped heavily enough
to shatter one of the diecast metal module retaining screw-nuts. The 8mm hex socket things.
See pic.
Does anyone have one of these screw things to spare? For how much?
Guy
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
I've always wondered that very same thing...
-- Tom
--
Prof. Thomas H. Lee
Allen Ctr., Rm. 205
350 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4070
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Hi
Tom¡Never heard that part of it before. So who bought the
first A models?
?
?
?
And
that was in addition to calling it the model 200, with an
"A" suffix to boot. Dave Packard was very, very smart.
The model that Disney ended up buying was the 200B, by the
way. The 200A was a 35Hz-35kHz unit. Disney wanted that
shifted downward, to 20Hz-20kHz. Bill Hewlett made some fast
tweaks, and the 200B was shipped off to a happy Disney.
--Cheers,
Tom
--
Prof. Thomas H. Lee
Allen Ctr., Rm. 205
350 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4070
The
story goes that the first HP product was the 200A audio
generator. The serial numbers started at 1000 so that
their first customer, Disney, wouldn¡¯t think it was the
first product they¡¯d ever built and sold. Disney bought 7
of them to use to calibrate the sound for the movie
Fantasia.
?
Tom,
N8ZM
?
?
Trivia: Serial numbers of the form
¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such
instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969,
when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was
a practical matter: serial number tags would have been
ordered in quantity and in advance of production.
Production management, if several hundred of the old
serial tags were in stock, would lean towards using up the
old ones before bearing the expense of ordering new ones.?
?
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM
Mikek <amdx@...>
wrote:
I have two meters both older I know
because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked
several groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
--
?
|
I currently use HP 438 power meters and am considering upgrading.? Main driver fo upgrade is I'm getting sick of having to enter the cal factor for each frequency measurement.? I would like the replacement to be a dual channel device.
I know that latter versions of HP power meters permit entering correction tables for use with the 848X power sensors.? What would the group recommend?
Some relevant questions:
1) How hard is it to tell the PM what frequency entry to use?
2) Do any of the PMs accept an analog voltage to determine the frequency correction (that would really be fun)
3) Any known problems to look out for
Cheers!
Bruce
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
Hi Tom¡Never heard that part of it before. So who bought the first A models? ? ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Tom Lee
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2022 11:41 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.? And that was in addition to calling it the model 200, with an "A" suffix to boot. Dave Packard was very, very smart.
The model that Disney ended up buying was the 200B, by the way. The 200A was a 35Hz-35kHz unit. Disney wanted that shifted downward, to 20Hz-20kHz. Bill Hewlett made some fast tweaks, and the 200B was shipped off to a happy Disney.
--Cheers,
Tom
-- Prof. Thomas H. Lee Allen Ctr., Rm. 205 350 Jane Stanford Way Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4070
The story goes that the first HP product was the 200A audio generator. The serial numbers started at 1000 so that their first customer, Disney, wouldn¡¯t think it was the first product they¡¯d ever built and sold. Disney bought 7 of them to use to calibrate the sound for the movie Fantasia. ? Tom, N8ZM ? ? Trivia: Serial numbers of the form ¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969, when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was a practical matter: serial number tags would have been ordered in quantity and in advance of production. Production management, if several hundred of the old serial tags were in stock, would lean towards using up the old ones before bearing the expense of ordering new ones.? ? On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek <amdx@...> wrote: I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked several groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
--
?
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
And that was in addition to calling it the model 200, with an "A"
suffix to boot. Dave Packard was very, very smart.
The model that Disney ended up buying was the 200B, by the way. The
200A was a 35Hz-35kHz unit. Disney wanted that shifted downward, to
20Hz-20kHz. Bill Hewlett made some fast tweaks, and the 200B was
shipped off to a happy Disney.
--Cheers,
Tom
--
Prof. Thomas H. Lee
Allen Ctr., Rm. 205
350 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4070
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
The
story goes that the first HP product was the 200A audio
generator. The serial numbers started at 1000 so that their
first customer, Disney, wouldn¡¯t think it was the first
product they¡¯d ever built and sold. Disney bought 7 of them
to use to calibrate the sound for the movie Fantasia.
?
Tom, N8ZM
?
?
Trivia: Serial numbers of the form
¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such
instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969,
when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was a
practical matter: serial number tags would have been ordered
in quantity and in advance of production. Production
management, if several hundred of the old serial tags were
in stock, would lean towards using up the old ones before
bearing the expense of ordering new ones.?
?
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek
<amdx@...>
wrote:
I have two meters both older I know
because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked several
groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
--
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
The story goes that the first HP product was the 200A audio generator. The serial numbers started at 1000 so that their first customer, Disney, wouldn¡¯t think it was the first product they¡¯d ever built and sold. Disney bought 7 of them to use to calibrate the sound for the movie Fantasia. ? Tom, N8ZM ?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jeremy Nichols
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2022 3:37 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.? Trivia: Serial numbers of the form ¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969, when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was a practical matter: serial number tags would have been ordered in quantity and in advance of production. Production management, if several hundred of the old serial tags were in stock, would lean towards using up the old ones before bearing the expense of ordering new ones.? ? On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek <amdx@...> wrote: I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked several groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
--
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
I¡¯m trying to figure out the serial number of my HP-606A Signal Generator, which is 960-13478. The interpretation I¡¯ve always been told is that this instrument¡¯s design was finalized in the 60th week of 1969! How is that possible??
Another example: my HP-412A carries serial number 0978A19963. 78th week of 1969? A third example: the 3444A DC Multi-function plug-in for my 3440A DVM ?carries serial number 0973A07281. There must be some additional information we¡¯re missing. ?
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 7:29 PM Jim Adney < jadney@...> wrote: On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 12:17 PM, Mikek wrote:
I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
Looking at your numbers, as well as those of my older HP instruments, it's clear that HP did not start inserting the central letter (country) code right away. It appears that the new scheme that started in 1960 was yww-sssss. It looks like the central country code letter was introduced sometime in '68 or '69, and this may have happened at the same time HP added the leading zero, knowing that 1970 would require it.
It's important to understand that the date, year and week, denotes the date the (new or revised) design was finalized. It's not the build date. It also seems clear that the sequential serial number restarted at 00101 each time the serial prefix (date code) changed. It should also be noted that the serial prefix need not be unique to a particular HP model; it's conceivable that two different design teams could finalize on the same week. As HPs catalog grew, this must have happened often.
There's one (maybe more) exception to this: On HP pocket calculators, the date code IS the year and week of manufacture.
So the design of your 3400A was finalized in the 6th week of 1968, and likewise your 400E was based on the design of week 49 of 1969. If you're looking for a manual for your instrument, it's important to get one that covers your serial prefix. Manuals will often have backdating info as well as update sheets for later instruments. You can look at the serial prefixes for this instrument and bracket the date when yours must have been made.
One of the important things to understand is how many design revisions some of HPs products got. This was especially true of popular instruments which had long production lifetimes like the 200CD, 3400A, and all the various versions of the 400.
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 12:17 PM, Mikek wrote:
I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
Looking at your numbers, as well as those of my older HP instruments, it's clear that HP did not start inserting the central letter (country) code right away. It appears that the new scheme that started in 1960 was yww-sssss. It looks like the central country code letter was introduced sometime in '68 or '69, and this may have happened at the same time HP added the leading zero, knowing that 1970 would require it. It's important to understand that the date, year and week, denotes the date the (new or revised) design was finalized. It's not the build date. It also seems clear that the sequential serial number restarted at 00101 each time the serial prefix (date code) changed. It should also be noted that the serial prefix need not be unique to a particular HP model; it's conceivable that two different design teams could finalize on the same week. As HPs catalog grew, this must have happened often. There's one (maybe more) exception to this: On HP pocket calculators, the date code IS the year and week of manufacture. So the design of your 3400A was finalized in the 6th week of 1968, and likewise your 400E was based on the design of week 49 of 1969. If you're looking for a manual for your instrument, it's important to get one that covers your serial prefix. Manuals will often have backdating info as well as update sheets for later instruments. You can look at the serial prefixes for this instrument and bracket the date when yours must have been made. One of the important things to understand is how many design revisions some of HPs products got. This was especially true of popular instruments which had long production lifetimes like the 200CD, 3400A, and all the various versions of the 400.
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
According to this the design date of my 3400A was the 18th week of 1972, built in the good o'l USA and was the 18,284th unit produced. Sweet!
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
More historical trivia. I was just looking up something for a member of the VETE (Vintage Electronic Test Equipment) Facebook group and discovered this note regarding the ¡°000-00000¡± (vintage 1960-1970) serial numbers: ¡°If the serial number is prefixed by a letter, the instrument was manufactured outside the United States.¡±
Trivia: Serial numbers of the form ¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969, when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was a practical matter: serial number tags would have been ordered in quantity and in advance of production. Production management, if several hundred of the old serial tags were in stock, would lean towards using up the old ones before bearing the expense of ordering new ones.?
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek < amdx@...> wrote: I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked several groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
Jeremy Nichols
6.
|
Re: Hp 8590a spectrum analyzer
|
Re: How do you decipher HP serial numbers for date.
Trivia: Serial numbers of the form ¡°09mmXnnnnn¡± can also appear as ¡°9mm-nnnnn.¡± Such instruments would have been made in (late, usually) 1969, when the change in format was underway. I suspect this was a practical matter: serial number tags would have been ordered in quantity and in advance of production. Production management, if several hundred of the old serial tags were in stock, would lean towards using up the old ones before bearing the expense of ordering new ones.?
On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 10:17 AM Mikek < amdx@...> wrote: I have two meters both older I know because of the AC plug.
?HP 3400A # 806-08346
HP 400E # 0949A11285
??? Thanks, Mikek
PS, I knew I saw a thread about this, I checked several groups I frequent and couldn't find it.
?
????????????
|
Jeremy Nichols
Anders
Guy Dunphy
Craig Petersen