Hey folks. For some time now I've been working on the innards of the 70900A/B spectrum analyzer LO modules. With the recent recovery of the Receiver Personality program, which is software that gets installed into a 70900 to turn it into a high-performance signal analysis receiver, I decided to kick that work into high gear. I've now successfully reverse-engineered the functions of the address mapping PALs and the memory subsystem on the MEM-PLUS CPU board present in many 70900s, to make it possible to upgrade the RAM chips on the ROM/RAM boards.

The Receiver Personality software coexists with the normal spectrum analyzer firmware; you can switch back and forth during operation with a button press. It has no effect on normal spectrum analyzer use. This software, and possibly others, requires that a 70900 have Option 512, which is higher-density memory on the ROM/RAM board. It seems very few 70900 CPU boards were shipped with this option. This software also requires that the 70900 have firmware release B.05.00 or later, and have an MC68020 processor.

In this context, I am now prepared to offer, as a paid service, some upgrades to certain 70900 (both A and B) modules.

Given a 70900 that has the MEM-PLUS option installed, I can upgrade the RAM to give it Option 512. I can also update the firmware to the last release, B.06.04. While it's here, I can also replace the battery, and the failure-prone capacitors on the power board if required. I can also install the Receiver Personality software, if desired.

I am happy to share the information required for anyone to perform these upgrades themselves, however, I thought it reasonable to offer it as a service for those who don't want to risk ruining their expensive 70900. There are several reasons for this. First, these modifications require quite a lot of extraction and soldering of surface-mount components. Then, there's finding/procuring all of the required replacement components, and removing/reprogramming/replacing the PAL chips, which are soldered. If a firmware update is desired, that also involves the extraction, out-of-circuit reprogramming, and replacement of multiple surface-mount flash chips. My company has the proper equipment to perform these tasks correctly; I do this type of work professionally as my full-time job. I will charge for this service; that's to be discussed off-list.

I've performed these modifications on three of my own 70900s with flawless results.

My company has a substantial stock of the required replacement SRAM chips, PALs, batteries, and capacitors.

Again, your 70900, A or B, must have the MEM-PLUS option installed for this to work. I can tell you how to determine that if you don't already know. And before anyone asks, no, I cannot repair failed EYO (YIG) modules.

Contact me off-list at mcguire@... if you're interested in this service.

Thanks,
-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

At 2020-10-27 03:51 PM, you wrote:

There was a function that displayed a combination lock with letters in the stop positions. If you dialed in XYZZY in the correct order and rotation a picture of an old man was displayed. I have no idea why I still remember that.

XYZZY was a "magic word" in the original Collosal Cave Adventure that was popular a few years before that.

Steve Hendrix

On 10/27/20 4:08 PM, Paul Amaranth wrote:

There's a very interesting article on the hpmemory site on
this one:

Looks like fun :-)

My thoughts exactly; I've never used a 1980, and I'll be right near the OP's area soon.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

There's a very interesting article on the hpmemory site on
this one:



Looks like fun :-)

Paul

--
Paul Amaranth, GCIH | Manchester MI, USA
Aurora Group of Michigan, LLC | Security, Systems & Software
paul@... | Unix/Linux - We don't do windows

On 10/27/20 3:04 PM, Watchguard Consulting via groups.io wrote:

Parts Donors or try your hand at fixing them? Exit 135 NJ Pkway. Contact me off-list. Both are scheduled for the dumpster. One has a few chips missing and the other is complete and powers on and displays a trace both channels
but it fails to find a signal by itself. HP1980B measurement systems.

Off-list mail sent; please check your spam folder if you don't see it.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

Parts Donors or try your hand at fixing them??Exit 135 NJ Pkway. Contact me off-list. Both are scheduled for the dumpster. One has a few chips missing and the other is complete and powers on and displays a trace both channels
but it fails to find a signal by itself. HP1980B measurement systems.

Hello,

Indeed, I'm repairing a 83594A with also voltage differences for the calibration of frequency bands' limits as far as I remember (I don't work on it for a mounth).

Best regards,
Fabien, F4CTZ

---- Steve - Home a écrit ----

I have both a hard copy "Press Proof" and the excellent Artek pdf of the 83595A manual. The pdf covers two of the serial number ranges for two of my four plug ins (2302A, 2414A); the other two are newer than the manual changes (2543A, 2726A). The two older plug ins are working and the two newer plug ins need a bit of fine tuning. Certain steps in the adjustments section of the manuals (both manuals) give results that don't match the manual, like reading 0 vdc instead of -7.54624 vdc, and the corresponding adjustments have no effect on the reading. That's for both working and "need adjustment" units.
Has anyone run into this? Any other versions of the manual out there? I'm also looking for a copy of the C model plug in to see if it might help. There is one listed at a place called TZ Supplies but their web site contact page isn't working.
Thanks!
Steve
WB0DBS

I have both a hard copy "Press Proof" and the excellent Artek pdf of the 83595A manual. The pdf covers two of the serial number ranges for two of my four plug ins (2302A, 2414A); the other two are newer than the manual changes (2543A, 2726A). The two older plug ins are working and the two newer plug ins need a bit of fine tuning. Certain steps in the adjustments section of the manuals (both manuals) give results that don't match the manual, like reading 0 vdc instead of -7.54624 vdc, and the corresponding adjustments have no effect on the reading. That's for both working and "need adjustment" units.
Has anyone run into this? Any other versions of the manual out there? I'm also looking for a copy of the C model plug in to see if it might help. There is one listed at a place called TZ Supplies but their web site contact page isn't working.
Thanks!
Steve
WB0DBS

Hi all,

I've got an 8006A word generator pulled out (together with a Tek R453) of a larger rack intended for the trash. I have it on the bench right now, generating words without end...

Nice piece of equipment, seems well built. Some of the switches required extensive toggling before working correctly. I can't find many information about it, besides the manual on Keysights website. There are musicians using it as a sequencer... anyone else using it?

cheers
Martin

not sure about IDE pinouts but maybe wrong voltages applied to the wrong pins and killed it.
anyway, it looks your problem is that the drive is not identified correctly in the bios. BIOS communicates with the little firmware ROM on the drive (no matter what type of drive it is) and gets the drive information from there.?
also these scopes (unlike some other scopes specially tektronix ones) can be easily booted to just pure windows 98 with no scope software in it
I mean if you just make a bootable windows 98 DOS floppy (available on internet) or a windoows 98 installation CD you should be able to boot the scope
from there and check your drive or even burn the image to it from within the scope.

I'll plug in a different drive and take a picture.

I think the other drive (3.5" IDE) has the image the pervious owner sent to me. So that drive, if anything, should work. The drive I'm using now is the 2.5" with the mSATA card inside - this drive may have been plugged in with only one of the two rows plugged in.

If I remain uncertain, I'll burn the image again and send updates on what I find.

the drive name identified by the BIOS is not something that somebody can make up or change it. It is written in the drive's firmware ROM in factory
if it is being identified with garbage name, it is either the drive is bad or the connection. I hardly believe the motherboard chipset is bad. I have never seen that before.
but it can be the motherboard BIOS is having a problem although that is also very rare

I assumed the person who made this drive (or the drive it was cloned from) named it and why the odd name. Also, if I use another drive, such as a WD, I believe it reads WDC......xxxxx

As for the boot order, that's the default, but I've changed the boot order several times Unfortunately it lists HDD1, HDD2, etc... and I don't know which drive is which, however, I've tried all of them including turning off 'boot other device'.

When I removed the mSATA inside this drive (to clone), I was able to view the drive, but I didn't look at the name.

Keep in mind, I've tried another (or maybe two) IDE cables (one for sure was fresh out of a bag - thus never used), and I've tried two other drives; one with an image from someone else.

I fully agree that something is odd with the link between the hard drive and motherboard. Since I've tried one or two other cables, I've ruled out that. I'll try your suggestions.

I THINK at one point I disconnected the hard drive and may have powered it with the IDE cable only on half the pins. Would something like this have blown the motherboard? I just don't remember at what point it stopped booting, but know I never touched the BIOS. I also remember turning off power without shutting down Windows (or maybe while it was booting).

ok the very first thing to note is that your hard drive name is not identified properly, it looks like garbage instead of "SanDisk" that I believe it should have been
so that usually means something is wrong with your drive or the connecting cable has issue. definitely this is the first thing you should look into
click on that hard hard drive and see if the information is correct (space and No. of cylinders and clusters etc....) or they look like garbage

2-you do have a cache setup, under that menu you can disable cache memory?

3- why is HDD inot your first boot device!??
also disable the "Boot Other Device"

4- you can make a bootable win98 CD (or DOS floppy) and try to boot from that and log on and see if you can access your hard drive at all
that would be the first thing I would have done

let us know how it goes

开云体育

Hello,

you found yourself a new subscriber!

Tam

With best regards
Tam HANNA 

Enjoy electronics? Join 15k7 other followers by visiting the Crazy Electronics Lab at  

I didn't see an 'optimized' option nor did I see board cache memory.

I forgot to look at whether the LAN is a card or on the motherboard, however, I believe I've tried removing the GPIB but will try again (and the LAN card if it has one).

Attached are several pictures of the boot sequence and various BIOS options/settings..

Dennis,
To you and everyone out there that need parts for the 34XX series of products, now is the time to renew your requests.? I should have the list of Red Devil resistors in a spread sheet sometime this weekend.? ?I uploaded a video showing my business move into a new location:



Parts requests can also be made in the comment section of that video.? Each person that needs parts could start his/her own thread in the comments.? That would help me keep everything straight with one location to go to rather than trying to refer to emails and these groups.

Thanks,
George Hnatiuk