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CHECK OUT THE WIKI The purpose of the wiki is mainly to allow you to find information on instruments, either from either
- The model number
- The function(s) listed below. Some instruments have multiple functions - for example, the 4195A is a VNA, spectrum analyzer and an impedance analyzer. Therefore the 4195A is listed in multiple categories
Please also check out HPWiki available here:
- Accessory kits - various types
- AC power analyzers - PA2201A and PA2203A
- AC power supplies 6811C, 6812C, 6813C
- Airlines
- Arbitrary waveform generators M8194A
- Amplifiers?493A, 495A?
- Attenuators (optical) 8156A, 8157A, 8158B, 81566A, 81576A,?
- Attenuators (RF) 8494A
- Attenuator set (500 ¦¸) 350C
- Attenuator set (600 ¦¸) 350D
- Attenuator switch driver
- Audio analyzers? 8903A, 8903B, 8903E,? ?
- Base station test sets
- Bit error rate testers (BERTs)
- Cables
- Capacitance meters U1701A, U1701B, 4272A, 4278A, 4279A
- Capacitor Bridge 4270A,
- Capacitor standards 16380A, 16380C,?
- Carrier noise test setsi
- Cesium frequency standards
- Clamp ammeters
- Close field probes
- Crystal Impedance E4915A, E4916A
- Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs)
- DC power analyzers
- DC power supplies 6030A , 6031A , 6032A, 6033A, 6035A, 6131C, 6621A, 6622A, 6623A, 6624A, 6627A, 6255A, 6645A, 6671A, 6672A, 6673A, 6674A, 6675A, 62003A, 62003C, 62003E, 62004A, 62004B, 62004E, 62005A, 62005B, 62005E, 62006A, 62006B, 62006E, 62010A, 62010C, 62010E, 62012A, 62012C, 62012E, 62015A, 62015C, 62015E, 62018A, 62018C, 62018E, 62024A, 62024C, 62024E, 62028A, 62028C, 62028E, 62048A, 62048C, 62048E
- Delay lines
- Detectors
- Device current waveform analyzers
- Digital communications analyzers
- Directional couplers
- Distortion analyzers 330B, 330C, 330D, 331A, 332A, 333A, 334A, 339A, 8903A, 8903B, 8903E,???
- Dynamic measurement DC source
- Electrometers
- Fading simulators
- Femto ammeters
- Filters
- Frequency counters 522B, 5342A 5343A 5352B
- Frequency standards?
- Function Generators ? 3310A,? 8165A,
- GPIB controllers, extenders, cables etc.
- GPS frequency standards
- Harmonic mixers
- High resistance meters 4339B
- High resistance meter fixtures 16008B
- HEV EV Grid Emulators and Test Systems
- In-circuit test systems
- Impedance analyzers 4195A, 4291A, 4291B, 4395A, 4396A, 4396B, 4294A, E4990A, E4991A
- Impedance Analyzer Accessories
- Impedance / Gain Phase analyzer 4194A
- Impedance Meter 4193A,
- Isolators
- LCR meters? U1701A, U1701B, U1731A,? U1731B, U1731C, U1732A, U1732B, U1732C, U1733C, 4191A , 4192A, 4194A, 4195A, E4196A,? 4216A, 4260A, 4261A, 4262A? 4263A, 4263B, 4271B, 4274A, 4275A, 4276A , 4277A, 4284A, 4285A, 4286A, 4287A, 4291A, 4291B, 4294A, 4332A, 4342A, 4395A, 4396A, 4396B, E4980A and E4980AL
- LCR meter calibration devices? 16380A 42030A? 42090A, 42091A and 42100A
- LCR meter accessories
- 2-Terminal BNCs.
- 4-Terminal Pair (BNC connectors)
- Cable extension 16048A, 16048D, 16048E, 16048G, 16048H
- DC current bias accessories 42841A, 42842A, 42842B, 42842C, 42843A
- DC voltage bias accessories 16065A, 16065C,
- Kelvin clips 16089A, 16089B, 16089C,16089E
- Lead Components 16047A,16047B, 16047D, 16047E
- Material 16451B, 16452A
- Probes 42941A
- SMD 16034E, 16034G, 16034H
- 2-port 16096A
- 7 mm (APC7)
- 2-Terminal BNCs.
- LCZ meters? 4276A, 4277A,
- Lightwave clock / data receivers
- Lightwave converter
- Lightwave component analyzer
- Lightwave measurement system mainframes
- Lightwave polarization analyzers 8509B
- Logic analyzers
- Nemo wireless network solutions.
- Noise and interference test set
- Noise figure analyzers
- Noise sources 346A, 346B. 346C ,
- Matching pads (50 ohm to 75 ohm or similar)
- Materials test equipment
- Microwave repeaters
- Microwave downconverters 70427A
- Microwave / THz sources
- Milliammeter 428B
- Milliohm meter
- Mobile communications DC source
- Modular instruments
- AXIe
- Data acquisition (DAQ)
- USB
- PXIe
- Modulation analyzers
- Multimeters 427A, 970A
- Optical attenuators
- Optical heads
- Optical sources
- Optical spectrum analyzers
- Oscilloscopes 120A, 120AR, 120B, 122A, 130A, 130B, 130BR, 130C, 140A, 140B, 141A, 150A, 150AR, 160B, 180A, 180AR, 180CD, 181A, 181AR, 181T, 181TR, 182C, 182T, 183A, 183B, 184A, 184B, 185A, 185B, 1200A, 1200B, 1220A, 1221A, 1703A, 1707A, 1707B, 1710A, 1710B, 1715A, 1722A, 1725A, 1726A, 1740A, 1741A, 1742A, 1743A, 1744A, 1746A, 1980A, 1980B, 5403A, 6000A, 6000L, 16533A, 16534A, 54100A, 5410B, 54100C, 5100D, 54111D, 54120A, 54120B, 54200A, 54501A, 54502A, 54503A, 54504A, 54520A, 54520C, 54540A, 54540C, 54542A, 54542C, 54600B, 54601A, 54601B, 54602B, 54603B,? 54645A, 54654N, 54710A, 54720A, 54750A, 54825N, E1428,?
- Oven controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs)
- Pattern generators
- PCM terminal test set
- Phase noise measurement
- Pico ammeters
- Printers 2225
- Plotters 7470A, 7475A?
- Probes
- Protocol analyzers and exercisers.
- Power booster test sets
- Power meters 431A, 431B, 431C, 432A, 435A, 435B, 437B, 438A
- Power splitters
- Power supplies
- Pulse generators
- Q-meters 4342A?
- Q-meter calibration inductors 16470A
- Reflection transmission test set
- Return loss module (optical)
- Relays / switches / switch matrices (optical)
- Relays / switches / switch matrices (RF)
- Resistor standards 42030A?and 42100A
- S-parameter test sets
- Scalar network analyzers
- SCSI bus preprocessor interface E2324A
- Selective level meters 3746A
- Semiconductors
- Semiconductor parameter analyzers 4145A, 4155B, 4156B,
- Signal analyzers
- Signal generators / sweep generators / signal sources / oscillators 200CD, 201B, 209A, 204D,? 608A,? 8165A
- Software
- Source measure units
- Spectrum analyzers 4195A,???
- Switch control units
- SWR meter 415E?
- Time interval? counters
- Time mark generator 226A
- Timing and data state modules
- Torque wrenches
- Transmitter testers
- Trigger modules
- Ultrasound transducers
- Universal bridge? 4260A, 4265A, 4265B?
- Vacuum tube voltmeter 410C
- Vector Impedance Meter 4193A, 4800A, 4815A
- Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) 4195A,? 8510A, 8510B, 8510C, 8753A, 8753B, 8753C, 8753D, 8753E, 8753ES, 8752ET, 8719A, 8719B, 8719C, 8719D, 8720A, 8720B, 8720C, 8720D, 8720ES, 8722A, 8722B, 8722C, 8722D, 8722ES,
- Vector Network Analyzers (VNA) calibration kits 85032B, 85032E, 85033C, 85033D, 85033E, 85050B, 85050C, 85050D, 85052B, 85052C, 85052D, 85054A, 85054B, 85054D, 85056A
- Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) verification kits
- Vector Signal Analyzer 89650S, 89600S
- Vector voltmeters 8405A, 8508A,
- VXI mainframes 70000B, 70000C
- Waveform and function generators
- Waveguide to waveguide and waveguide to coaxial transitions.
- Wireless 58 OTA chambers
- Wireless channel emulators
- Wireless network emulators
- Wireless communication test sets
?
Question Regarding the AC Probe Diode for an HP 410C
I have two HP 410C meters. The probe (HP 11036A) in my first one uses the EA53 which is designed for a 6.3VAC filament. The probe for my newest one has the 2-01C which is designed for a 5.0VAC filament.
I know that the 410B (I have two of those as well) has an adjustment for the filament voltage so it can use either tube; however, the 410C doesn't have that adjustment. I always thought that all the 11036A probes were compatible with all 410Cs but perhaps not. Were some 410Cs made for a 2-01C and others for the EA53? If so, is it possible this is tied to a serial number prefix and the EA53 probes are only to be used with certain prefixes and the 2-01C used for the other prefixes? All the schematics I've found show 6.0VAC as the heater voltage supply so it seems odd to me that the 2-01C was used at that voltage but maybe so? Thanks, Barry - N4BUQ |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
I believe it is called "progress" , what used to be designed by thinking engineers are mostly done by the kids and their dumb phones IMHO.
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this drives me nuts too! as far as linux may have been easily solved by booting from a disk or usb. no more win stuff for me 2 yrs ago went to linux! there is a learning curve. I have a 98,xp and 7 machines that never go on line..for things that must be win ¸é±ð²Ô¨¦±ð On 2019-07-26 8:31 a.m., Peter Gottlieb wrote:
The state of software is a royal mess and is getting worse. |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
The state of software is a royal mess and is getting worse.
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I had an old Thinkpad T60 with Win7 which I was using as a lab bench machine, mostly downloading pdf files of parts for troubleshooting. The disk started to have problems and I was unable to reinstall the OS, despite the worthless product key. I installed Linux on a new drive and all was well, until Linux one day booted to some command line. Nobody could help me recover the OS and guess what? To get the files I downloaded required buying some $65 utility. Gee, I was able to very easily do that from the Windows disk. Start from scratch using another laptop, scrap that one. Last night my wife asked me to make a copy of a CD with a bunch of files. Easy, right? All built into Win10. I first copy the files to a temp directory, then put a blank CD in. Then I get the option to make a data CD, name it, then move the files to that window. So far so good, and it tells me the files are to be copied to the CD. But there is no button or menu item to start the process! I Google it and it shows the option, but it¡¯s not there on my system. So I remove the CD and put it back in as a last resort and sure enough the option is now shown. WTF? How much do they check this stuff? Making a copy in XP or 7 was foolproof, why did they break it? Peter On Jul 26, 2019, at 11:09 AM, Tom Gardner <tggzzz@...> wrote:On 26/07/19 14:50, Peter Gottlieb wrote:In reality it is worse than that; here's three Microsoft horror stories... |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
On 26/07/19 14:50, Peter Gottlieb wrote:
Support for an OS has several angles.In reality it is worse than that; here's three Microsoft horror stories... Once, while WinXP was still fully supported, I had an "interesting" experience with a Samsung netbook after its hard disk failed. Printed on the underside of the netbook were the WinXP licence and the xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx product key. I bought a new hard disk and installed it, then used an external CDROM drive to re-install WinXP from my own WinXP installation CDROM, using the product key on the bottom of the netbook. WinXP installed in the usual way, quite successfully, as expected. But when I first rebooted I was confronted by an unfamiliar DOS-box window, which said "Microsoft" at the top and "shan't boot into WinXP because the product key was wrong". What the...?! WinXP had just installed correctly. I contacted Microsoft, and their service person said it was a Samsung problem, even though this was clearly a Microsoft display. I contacted Samsung, and their service person said it was a Microsoft problem, quite reasonably IMHO. (But they did try to weasel out by asking the disk drive's manufacturer; the original was Western Digital (!) and by chance the replacement was Samsung) In the end the only solution would have been to buy another a new hard disk from Samsung, with WinXP pre-installed. Bugger that; I installed Linux and the 10 year old netbook continues to work well with an excellent battery life since the I set the BIOS to only charge it to 80% of capacity. The second horror story is Microsoft's PlaysForSure (TM) music. Since Microsoft have turned their servers, you can't move the music you purchased to another hard disk. Makes a mockery of "PlaysForSure", despite Microsoft claiming it was merely "pining for the fjords" The third horror story happened this month: Microsoft closed down its ebooks platform. It has offered a refund, plus a bit if your carefully curated bookmarks have gone up in aetherial smoke. See a pattern? |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
Support for an OS has several angles.
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I would hope the negotiated deal for a piece of equipment with an embedded OS would have a lifetime, fully transferrable license for that piece of equipment. So your Win2k scope should have the rights to use that OS until the instrument is scrapped. I don¡¯t think Microsoft should be forced into infinite support in the form of security updates, although they sort of secretly do for Win2k and XP, if you set the registry flag indicating they are in a bank ATM. But even that can¡¯t last forever. However, if the scope is operated standalone or on a very well protected network as a practical matter a lack of updates doesn¡¯t matter. As for Tek supporting older instruments, there should be reasonable limits. It will be increasingly expensive to support older gear as fewer and fewer personnel are familiar with the older technology. Should Tek still support 545 vacuum tube scopes? What about parts which are no longer available? But, from the customer perspective, what is reasonable? Should 10 years of replacement ASICs be stocked? What about increasingly complex and expensive test setups, which themselves may have unobtanium repair parts? 10 years would be satisfactory to me for standard instruments, maybe 5 for highly specialized ones, but I would definitely balk if less than that, and try to avoid a company that hinders third party repairs. I¡¯ve worked at many places that have older gear which is maintained and calibrated by these third party firms and if gear must be sent back to inly the manufacturer then there is little difference to Chinese or Korean test gear. Peter On Jul 26, 2019, at 8:29 AM, nigel adams via Groups.Io <nigel.adams@...> wrote: |
Re: HP Service Note availability
<bump>
And: A reminder that I will be more than happy to help scan the SM's - heck, I'll pay (reasonable) postage to send back and forth. My personal preference for the associated SN's (but not limited to) are the HP 3663A, 5335A, 5345A, 5245L, 3325A, 5105A, 5110B, 8640B, 8903A, 3456A, 3455A.? Again, while those are on the top of my personal list, I will of course help with any others that anyone wants. Thank you all again, Hal |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
Problem is, and not wishing to sound arrogant in any way...., In their eyes you have had this scope too long and
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Tek is expecting you (like Keysight/HP and others) to roll over and buy a new one. I wonder how they would feel if their shiny new BMW, Mercedes was deemed unrepairable/unserviceable after only 2 years.. Most companies think a lifetime of between 5-10 years is more than enough to keep top end/high tech equipment. The use of an embedded PC style OS is a real help to them as the moment M/soft or whoever declares end of support then the test equipment supplier rubs his hands with glee and can happily refuse to support it. So many companies now are calling EOS for their equipment as soon as they can. Not nice when it is hard to justify replacements especially in a teaching or research environment. What is needed is for the salesmen to be nailed to the floor with written statements that they will support and honour any stated equipment lifetime such that it makes it really hard for them to sell kit. That will hurt them (the manufacturers the most) - only then will they consider change or lose a sale to up coming Instrument makers (eg. Korean or Chinese) gradually their performance is improving and hopefully the more advantageous pricing will help all of us. Unfortunately gone are the days of beautifully prepared manuals and information about everything to do with the item from well known TE companies such are HP, Marconi, Tek etc. Regards Nigel -----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Susan Parker Sent: 26 July 2019 12:32 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001? Dear All, As Alwyn says: "What really annoys me is the lack of support of equipment which uses older versions of Windows- knowing the policies of that company, I now insist on hearing how long term support will be assured before I buy." Indeed!!! I have a Tek TDS7000B series in our group that I am trying to "repair" because its Windows 2000 OS has gone AWOL from a hard drive failure. Tek refuse to supply the Microsoft Windows restore discs "because of licensing issues" which to me seems entity bogus for a piece of equipment that cost well over GBP20,000 in 2003 (i.e. more than a Hi-End VW Golf Turbo). We have happenchance found an original Restore Manual and set of discs on e$ay which fingers crossed will resolve the issue, but the lack of support from Tek is astounding for such expensive equipment (TDS7154B). I am now recommanding Pico Technology scopes wherever possible, even though I personally prefer a 'scope with knobs on it the price differentials are to great to ignore. Best, Susan. Susan Parker, Laser Consortium, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, UK. |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
Dear All,
As Alwyn says: "What really annoys me is the lack of support of equipment which uses older versions of Windows- knowing the policies of that company, I now insist on hearing how long term support will be assured before I buy." Indeed!!! I have a Tek TDS7000B series in our group that I am trying to "repair" because its Windows 2000 OS has gone AWOL from a hard drive failure. Tek refuse to supply the Microsoft Windows restore discs "because of licensing issues" which to me seems entity bogus for a piece of equipment that cost well over GBP20,000 in 2003 (i.e. more than a Hi-End VW Golf Turbo). We have happenchance found an original Restore Manual and set of discs on e$ay which fingers crossed will resolve the issue, but the lack of support from Tek is astounding for such expensive equipment (TDS7154B). I am now recommanding Pico Technology scopes wherever possible, even though I personally prefer a 'scope with knobs on it the price differentials are to great to ignore. Best, Susan. Susan Parker, Laser Consortium, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, UK. |
Re: FGPA Development
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýOn 26/07/19 02:47, Harvey White wrote:
I'll add some points about FPGAs:
There is one processor that is half-way between a standard MCU
and FPGA in terms of performance: the XMOS xCORE devices,
available from Digikey. They have a long and solid pedigree, being
directly descended from Transputers and Occam and Hoare's
Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) formalism. A single chip can have up to 32 cores (expandable with chips),
run at 4000MIPS, have onboard RAM and flash memory, "FPGA like" IO
(e.g. SERDES etc)? - but that is useless unless you can program
them quickly and effectively. The xC language enables that, being
designed for multiprocessing from the ground up - unlike C. This
makes it surprisingly easy and fun to actually use the devices. As for hard realtime, the IDE will guarantee the
execution times and latency. That avoids the need to run the code,
make measurements, and piously hope you have stumbled across
worst-case execution times. An example is that you can use some of
the cores to directly grab and process 100Mb/s serial data from an
ethernet or USB interface, while other cores simultaneously get on
with the real work. Yes, I'm a fan of them, for the right application. |
Re: FGPA Development
Altera was purchased by Intel, so Oracle might have more luck if they wanted to try again.
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Xilinx requires a license for their free edition, 1 year long as I recall, which always seems to expire in the middle of a hot project and have to pause to wait for renewal. Intel offers the Quartus software in 3 versions, Intel Quartus Prime Lite Edition as a free download with no license file required, now up to version 19.1, and Prime Standard and Prime Pro as paid versions. Xilinx has several different programming modes, so the learning curve to get from compiled VHDL or Verilog code to a programmed part seems so much simpler with Altera. I also like that the Altera Max 2 parts I use EPM240-EMP1270 don't require a separate memory chip to store the bit map, although that's not a problem if using one of the Chinese FPGA complete modules. What sort of processing needs to occur in the FPGA? With each different hardware adapter requiring a different driver, and only talking to different software, It's not as simple as simply converting from the serial USB data stream to parallel HPIB. John On 7/25/2019 10:46 AM, Dave Daniel wrote:
I'm starting anew thread for the FPGA development discussion that veered off from the OSSW/OSHW AR488 GPIB-USB adapter discussion. |
Re: FGPA Development
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
On 7/25/2019 4:39 PM, Dave Daniel
wrote:
Hmmm, well, I may have transgressed "simple".? LED controller (pulse, pwm brightness), timer and trigger for ultrasonic distance measurement, Neopixel encoder, SPI interface, programmable pins, FIFO, usart, I2C to parallel decoder (in the works). also GPIB encoder, replacement for an 8259 keyboard/led driver,
and support circuitry for a DM5010.? Harvey
|
Re: FGPA Development
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý
On 7/25/2019 3:50 PM, saipan59 wrote:
I want to suggest that the discussion should include the trade-offs of an FPGA implementation vs an MCU [I have very limited experience with the former, but a lot with the latter], as it relates to the applications we're talking about. I'll weigh in here. FPGA:? lots faster, more expensive, extensive I/O.? True hardware
implementation, simultaneous operation of functions.? Often 3.3
volts for I/O.? Cost (including CPLDS, which are more limited in
scope, cheaper, and generally nonvolatile), will run from about 2
dollars to 16 dollars for Xilinx parts (what I'm familiar with).?
VHDL is essentially specifying hardware.? If you want it to
respond to different conditions (as in pretending to have a
program in it) then? you need either a state machine or a
processor IP (Picoblaze is possible).? RAM resources are somewhat
limited depending on chip (CPLDs have none).? Best use: smart
hardware and hardware subsystems.? SPI interface may be programmed
in for processor interface.? Programming is in VHDL or Verilog.? Microprocessor:? No hardware systems need to be designed.? Programming is sequential, slower, although DMA and some subsystems can operate independently.? 3.3 and 5.0 volts depending on processor.? Cost may run from less than one dollar to 20 dollars depending on family and manufacturer.? Microprocessors need external memory, external I/O subsystems.? Microcontrollers take program and data memory inside, and provide subsystems (I2C, SPI, Serial, etc.).? Programming is in any high level language available or assembly.? Operating system can give illusion of simultaneous operation, but unless more than one processor core is available, operation is time shared.
.
Note to architect, it's been done in military qualified systems for quite a few years.? Tektronix (and others) had extensive processor diagnostics before the horse was allowed outside the barn. He was fine with an FPGA or CPLD (at higher cost, more board real estate, less flexible behaviors, and HUGE complexity in the 'code' that runs under the covers). My belief is that he was equating an FPGA to the old bipolar PAL's used in the 70's/80's, where logic functions were literally burned in, so it was considered super-reliable. And he may have been thinking of early microprocessors as well. Harvey
In the end, I was able to meet the requirements with just a few little timer (1-shot) chips and a bit of glue logic. |
Re: Low cost, OSSW/OSHW AR488 GPIB-USB adapter
On 7/25/2019 10:58 AM, Dave Daniel wrote:
Also, don¡¯t foget issues of cost of buying and/or finding ¡°free¡± Verilog/VHDL copiler/synthesis and simulation tools.ISE webpack is the free edition.? All it wants to do is phone home to mommy to tell them what kind of device you're using.? No worse than Microsoft or symantec. simulator, editor, fitter, programming software, pin planner, etc. Good for the larger projects. Harvey
|
Re: Low cost, OSSW/OSHW AR488 GPIB-USB adapter
I've been watching this thread with interest, and the group
as a whole has identified most of the issues I dealt with in developing
KISS-488. I did in fact use a PIC microcontroller with the high-current
drivers on the pins going out to the bus (with series protection
resistors). I also realized that the standard GPIB terminators are the
Thevinin equivalent of 2K to 3.3V. Downright convenient using a modern
3.3V power supply for all the logic, and 3.3V is well above the standard
TTL threshold of 2.4V for a logic high.
That said, I'm sure many on this list are dyed-in-the-wool hackers (in the older and more respectful sense of the word), and would enjoy the challenge of building your own. But if you just want to be able to get a screen dump, or log data via Telnet, or just run your instrument from a PC, please give KISS-488 a look. Steve Hendrix |
Re: Possibly OT - open source SCSI adapters - was Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] Low cost, OSSW/OSHW AR488 GPIB-USB adapter
I've been meaning to read into the difference between the protocols of the SCSI PATA adapters for CD-ROM drives and hard drives since I see there are on the market adapters that are more cost effective for those devices.?
Wondering and thinking that there is some sort of firmware modification to enable... otherwise I guess some other circuit with chip is required.? Guessing is just a firmware mod however there might be something more complex with the linked list data structure of read/write protocol and needing a SOIC. - James Finch? |
Re: FGPA Development
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýWell, I don't have a problem with that, but I'm just a contributor to the thread. I have a lot (~43 years) experience with both embedded hardware
(including large FPGA designs) and embedded software, as well as
embedded system architecture, so I'll add my $.02. Partitioning an architecture into the hardware and software
components is not always easy (in fact, it almost always is not
easy). Remember that, at 70,000 ft., and ignoring all of the development
methodology issues, an FPGA or other fixed-hardware portion of a
design is different topologically than the part that the processor
handles. For example, the FPGA design is fixed, topologically and
(ignoring re-programming with different images for different
applications) may be designed to be deterministic in it's
behavior. Aside from design faults that cause timing and
metastability issues. A schematic or other fixed-topological view
of the hardware is the only model needed to depict the hardware
(deciphering it is another issue). The processor-controlled portion of the design necessarily
involves the execution of code, which has no fixed topology at
run-time, and is not necessarily deterministic. A software based
design requires, at a minimum, both a structural model of the code
and a behavioral model (think UML or SysML) to understand. It is not necessary to have both elements in an embedded system, but many embedded systems do have both. My point is that the determination of whether to use an FPGA or other fixed-hardware design, or a processor-based design, or a combination of both, is entirely dependent on the requirements that dictate how the system behaves and what it is supposed to do. In the commercial world, that determination also must take into account fixed production costs and maintenance costs of the system. Most (?) very small embedded systems designed by "hobbyists"
today use a single SBC such as an Arduino, Raspberry Pi,
BeagleBone, etc.and there is no need for the amount of fixed
hardware that would make a CPLD or FPGA a reasonable design
option, But, as the GPIB-USB discussion shows, sometimes maybe
using both is a good idea. DaveD On 7/25/2019 3:50 PM, saipan59 wrote:
I want to suggest that the discussion should include the trade-offs of an FPGA implementation vs an MCU [I have very limited experience with the former, but a lot with the latter], as it relates to the applications we're talking about. |
Re: FGPA Development
I want to suggest that the discussion should include the trade-offs of an FPGA implementation vs an MCU [I have very limited experience with the former, but a lot with the latter], as it relates to the applications we're talking about.
Anecdote: When designing the 'Power-On Reset' features for a product a few years ago, I planned to use a small MCU. When the Architect found out, he vetoed it, saying "We can't rely on running code for a critical start-up function". He was fine with an FPGA or CPLD (at higher cost, more board real estate, less flexible behaviors, and HUGE complexity in the 'code' that runs under the covers). My belief is that he was equating an FPGA to the old bipolar PAL's used in the 70's/80's, where logic functions were literally burned in, so it was considered super-reliable. In the end, I was able to meet the requirements with just a few little timer (1-shot) chips and a bit of glue logic. Pete |
Re: What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
Me either. Next step is sealed boxes with "No user replaceable parts" When it breaks toss it and buy a new one.
Really dumb policy. On 7/25/2019 12:09 PM, Daun Yeagley wrote: Hmm.... looks to me like they just signed their death certificate.WB6KBL |