...to a brand spanking new old stock 8566B. To say I'm excited is an understatement. It's perfect. No scuffs, scraps, dings, or dents. And it has everything. The pull out cards, manuals, application notes, pocket quick ref, verification software diskette.

Album here

Sean

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On Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 06:37 PM, Jim Ford wrote:

Lucky You! Merry Christmas indeed!

?

Jim Ford?

Thanks Jim!

I'm just all kinds of tickled. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Sean

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On Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 08:19 PM, Jim Ford wrote:

Enjoy!

?

My big holiday project is to buy a GPIB card and write (or download) python code to drive my 8566A and 8350B sweeper to act like a scalar network analyzer.? ?We do something similar at work, where the spectrum? analyzer sweeps over a narrow band several channels wide and fills in the sweep eventually because we put it in Max Hold mode.? Probably can do the same thing with the sweeper asynchronous to the spec an.

?

Wish me luck!

So essentially you just want to build a tracking generator? I have an early version of this thing:?

Mine does not have an onboard signal generator but the new one is entirely self contained and still easily covers the low band and band 1. It works extremely well and runs perfectly off a usb battery bank. I¡¯d like to have the 12 GHz version...

Sean

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Hi Sean,
What a good Christmas present! Now we need to know about the DLP program. Is it built in and if so how is it accessed?
Presumably the verification software diskette is run over the HPIB.

Merry Christmas.
Paul G8AQA

On Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 11:28 PM, PAUL NICKALLS wrote:

Hi Sean,
What a good Christmas present! Now we need to know about the DLP program. Is it built in and if so how is it accessed?
Presumably the verification software diskette is run over the HPIB.

Merry Christmas.
Paul G8AQA

Hi Paul.

As far as I am aware, it is a demo program that was installed at the factory. Most examples have long since had it overwritten by the end user who bought and used it in the first place. I've only ever seen in demoed one other time, in a video I can no longer find on the internet. Unfortunately, attempting GPIB capture with KE5FX's pen plotter utility while running a DLP seems to make the plotter crash, so I took some photos of each step of the demo. I'm hoping to preserve the program data once I can find a means of interfacing with the 8566B (either a 9000 series computer or some sort of modern workaround).

Sean

On 12/24/19 6:32 PM, [email protected] wrote:

...to a brand spanking new old stock 8566B. To say I'm excited is an
understatement. It's perfect. No scuffs, scraps, dings, or dents. And it
has everything. The pull out cards, manuals, application notes, pocket
quick ref, verification software diskette.

Album here
</g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/album?id=236309>

Wow, that's an absolute beauty. New old stock! How?! My jealousy
knows no bounds! Take good care of that, man. (I'm sure you will)

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

On 12/25/19 12:24 PM, [email protected] wrote:

As far as I am aware, it is a demo program that was installed at the
factory. Most examples have long since had it overwritten by the end
user who bought and used it in the first place. I've only ever seen in
demoed one other time, in a video I can no longer find on the internet.
Unfortunately, attempting GPIB capture with KE5FX's pen plotter utility
while running a DLP seems to make the plotter crash, so I took some
photos of each step of the demo. I'm hoping to preserve the program data
once I can find a means of interfacing with the 8566B (either a 9000
series computer or some sort of modern workaround).

I don't know if that somewhat iconic demo program has been archived
anywhere; I sure hope you're able to pull it out.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 10:42 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:

On 12/24/19 6:32 PM, [email protected] wrote:

...to a brand spanking new old stock 8566B. To say I'm excited is an
understatement. It's perfect. No scuffs, scraps, dings, or dents. And it
has everything. The pull out cards, manuals, application notes, pocket
quick ref, verification software diskette.

Album here
</g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/album?id=236309>

Wow, that's an absolute beauty. New old stock! How?! My jealousy
knows no bounds! Take good care of that, man. (I'm sure you will)

-Dave

Dave,

I definitely will. It should last me a lifetime! As to the demo DLP, I definitely want to preserve it in case it hasn't. I'm actively looking at a means to do this. If I have to go down the vintage computer rabbit hole, I will.

Sean

On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 09:55 AM, J Mcvein wrote:

Sean - It appears we have matching 8566B's (31** series) mid 1990's

manufacture.? Mine came out of the Idaho ANG from a ATE application.

The CRT intensity was turned down internally so now years later it

is almost new!

?

JimMc

?

Very interesting. I'm thinking of looking for some of the companion equipment that was sold alongside it to install in such test setups.

Sean

On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 11:26 AM, Siggi wrote:

Wow, what a beauty - congrats!

Thanks!

On 12/25/19 8:28 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Wow, that's an absolute beauty. New old stock! How?! My jealousy
knows no bounds! Take good care of that, man. (I'm sure you will)

I definitely will. It should last me a lifetime! As to the demo DLP, I
definitely want to preserve it in case it hasn't. I'm actively looking
at a means to do this. If I have to go down the vintage computer rabbit
hole, I will.

While I would never discourage you from going down that particularly
delightful rabbit hole, there's a hundred different ways to get GPIB on
modern computers...this should not be a big obstacle.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 08:19 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:

While I would never discourage you from going down that particularly
delightful rabbit hole, there's a hundred different ways to get GPIB on
modern computers...this should not be a big obstacle.

-Dave

Well, on one hand I'd love to fall down that rabbit hole! My lab is pretty much the very best of the 1980s in terms of test equipment, with a smattering of slightly newer instruments.? It should have a matching computer!

However, I do have an Agilent GPIB adapter which I have been using to interface successfully with the KE5FX utilities, so figuring out something more modern is ok as well.

Sean

No. There are 100 000 ways to put a wart on your arse which might also grow a hair which you can then transplant to your head. There is, take it from me, only one safe way: PCIe card from National Instruments.


Cry at the price (used, around 200€), cry at the two extra fans needed to keep its temperature at 35 degrees centigrade, and then open Visual Studio and start the celebrations.

With best regards
Tam HANNA

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

Sean,

I finally had a look at your HP8566B album, congratulations on getting a unit in such pristine condition.

I worked on the HP8566 production line at HP from 1980 - 1988.? There is a good chance that your HP8566B was built during my tenure on the production line.

I wrote the Demo DLPs that were downloaded into each unit, which are what you are showing in your photos.

I still have a copy of the HPBASIC program used to download the DLPs into the instruments.

I'm looking into putting a copy of the program into the files section of this group, I just need to determine how and what format(s) to use.? I already have electronic disk image copies of a HP9122D LIF Disk containing the program, along with some other HP8566B DLPs. The disk image files are compatible with the 'hpdir', 'hpdrive' and HP98x6 Emulator utilities.? In addition to the disk images, I'm thinking of putting copies as simple ASCII versions of the individual programs/files.? The simple ASCII files would be viewable by any number of editors/tools and could also be loaded into HPBASIC using "GET" as well.? Any other file storage preferences?
?

On 12/26/19 4:41 AM, Tam Hanna wrote:

No. There are 100 000 ways to put a wart on your arse which might also
grow a hair which you can then transplant to your head. There is, take
it from me, only one safe way: PCIe card from National Instruments.

Cry at the price (used, around 200€), cry at the two extra fans needed
to keep its temperature at 35 degrees centigrade, and then open Visual
Studio and start the celebrations.

...and then you look up, realize you've had to get Windows to do it,
and become sad. Sorry Tam, respectfully, this is BS...I use GPIB every
day, for work and not-work, with dozens of instruments in my lab, and
I've never had to deal with that proprietary crap.

Depending on what I want to get done, the most effective things are a
Prologix GPIB-Ethernet adapter which I generally use with R, an ICS
GPIB-Ethernet bridge which speaks the VXI-11 protocol (no relation to
"VXI"), or any of a small pile of built-here clones of Anders
Gustafsson's GPIB-USB adapters connected to either one of my desktop
systems or any of the various Raspberry Pis lying around.

GPIB is such an easy nut to crack these days that there's really no
good reason not to use it, if you need any sort of instrument automation.

NI has occasionally made decent hardware over the years, but I won't
touch it with a ten-foot pole. They are an absolute asshole of a
company with some of the worst-behaved suits in the industry, and
they've screwed me multiple times.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

Do you have any maintenance programs for the 8566B - I have a copy of
HP Basic and Rocky MT basic (for DOS) would like to try to see if they
would run

Thanks!

Bruce


Quoting "rmb_guru via Groups.Io" <rmb_guru@...>: