Re: How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
Hi Danny,
You got that one for a good price. Our friends across the pond pay a lot more than $1025 :-)
You should run the IODIAG2 test from the ROM tests list if it is present in your test set's firmware. It gives lower level information on the hardware installed.
The parallel I/F option may not be applicable to your unit depending on what standard of hardware is fitted. In any case a serial to USB adaptor is probably more useful for screen capture to a PC unless you have a parallel printer already. There is a handy serial screen capture utility, BTS, that works OK.
It is probably better (and cheaper) to use an external power attenuator than fit the 100W option. duming that extra 40W into the test set does not help reliability.
Robert G8RPI.
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On Monday, January 18, 2021, 11:36:26 PM EST, Alexandre Souza <alexandre.tabajara@...> wrote:
Oh, it worked! It was a problem with the LM1881 supply. Thanks a lot, Ralph!
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Re: How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
Hi Daniel
I should also say that the ONLY way that you can be absolutely certain of the frequency range of a HP8920A or a HP8920B is to measure it, so many changes to then have been made by past owners.
George G6HIG Dover UK On Tuesday, 19 January 2021, 00:13:17 GMT, DANIEL RAFFERTY <daniel1967@...> wrote:
Hello George
Thank you, you've saved me from heaps of digging through pdf's
I think the instructions are fairly straight forward, so no need to dig out your 8920A.
I'll just cut and paste them into an email to the seller.
What options would you recommend that the 8920A be fitted with if you wanted to work on HAM transceivers and homebrew items.
The one I have purchased comes with the following options :-
001 (High stability reference)
003 (GPIB / RS232 interface)
004 (Audio Signaling)
005 I believe this is a 512K memory upgrade
011 (CCITT Filter)
102 (Spectrum Analyzer)
In time, I'm thinking of swapping out 003 for 103 (GPIB / RS232 interface / Parallel)
Possibly also swapping 011 for one of the other filters, not sure which one yet.
The final thought would be up the power i/p from the standard 60W to 100W with opt 016.
For the moment I just happy I'll get my hands on a HP8920A
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
PS: I'll now have to look for "HP 11807A opt 100 (RF Tools)", instead of the "HP 11807E opt 100 (RF Tools)" I bought the other week thinking that I'd buying a 8920B later on.
On 18/01/2021 23:44, george edmonds via groups.io wrote:
Try this
To check your installed options:
1) Press the ¡°TESTS¡± button,
2) Select ¡°ROM¡± under procedure location
3) Select LIST_OPTS under procedure
4) Select RUN
5) The HP8920A will now list the included options on the screen
If necessary I can dig out my HP8920A and photograph the procedure
George G6HIG Dover UK On Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:18:05 GMT, DANIEL RAFFERTY <daniel1967@...> wrote:
Hello HP8920 hive mind :-)
I am asking a seller to get me a photo of the installed options/firmware
screen of an 8920A i have just bought.
He has given me the options from the rear label, but the options could
have been removed and the label left unchanged.
To be on the safe side, I want to see a photo of the installed on the
instruments display.
How do I instruct someone remotely on how to get display installed
options screen on a HP 8920A? (see attached photo of a different 8920A
from an ebay auction)
I just need to know the correct chain of key presses on the instrument
to get to that screen.
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
|
Oh, it worked! It was a problem with the LM1881 supply. Thanks a lot, Ralph!
?
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---8<---Corte aqui---8<---
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Re: How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
The SA and signalling option are the only ones I consider required.
The high stability means longer warm up time to come on frequency and with the?
cheap availability of GPS locked references not sure I would worry about that one.
standard audio filtering should be adequate
The test to display the installed HW and options may vary by firmware release.
I usually have to look at the list of available tests to see which ones are installed...more than one
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Re: How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
Hi Danny
Do you know the first five characters of the serial number, Generally 8920A's manufactured before 1999/2000 have an electro-mechanical input assembly (attenuator) and will work down to 400Khz. After 1999/2000 they were "improved" with a PIN diode input assembly which HP specs down to 30MHz (it works down to about 11MHz and then falls off a cliff)
Option 055 in a later 8920A restores the electro-mechanical input assembly, so is critical if you want to work below about 15MHz. DO NOT BELIEVE THE FREQUENCY RANGE LABEL ON THE FRONT.
Options 001 and 102 are nice with 102 being essential.
ALL 8920B's, unless they have option 055 have a lower specified limit of 30MHz.
73 George G6HIG Dover UK On Tuesday, 19 January 2021, 00:13:17 GMT, DANIEL RAFFERTY <daniel1967@...> wrote:
Hello George
Thank you, you've saved me from heaps of digging through pdf's
I think the instructions are fairly straight forward, so no need to dig out your 8920A.
I'll just cut and paste them into an email to the seller.
What options would you recommend that the 8920A be fitted with if you wanted to work on HAM transceivers and homebrew items.
The one I have purchased comes with the following options :-
001 (High stability reference)
003 (GPIB / RS232 interface)
004 (Audio Signaling)
005 I believe this is a 512K memory upgrade
011 (CCITT Filter)
102 (Spectrum Analyzer)
In time, I'm thinking of swapping out 003 for 103 (GPIB / RS232 interface / Parallel)
Possibly also swapping 011 for one of the other filters, not sure which one yet.
The final thought would be up the power i/p from the standard 60W to 100W with opt 016.
For the moment I just happy I'll get my hands on a HP8920A
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
PS: I'll now have to look for "HP 11807A opt 100 (RF Tools)", instead of the "HP 11807E opt 100 (RF Tools)" I bought the other week thinking that I'd buying a 8920B later on.
On 18/01/2021 23:44, george edmonds via groups.io wrote:
Try this
To check your installed options:
1) Press the ¡°TESTS¡± button,
2) Select ¡°ROM¡± under procedure location
3) Select LIST_OPTS under procedure
4) Select RUN
5) The HP8920A will now list the included options on the screen
If necessary I can dig out my HP8920A and photograph the procedure
George G6HIG Dover UK On Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:18:05 GMT, DANIEL RAFFERTY <daniel1967@...> wrote:
Hello HP8920 hive mind :-)
I am asking a seller to get me a photo of the installed options/firmware
screen of an 8920A i have just bought.
He has given me the options from the rear label, but the options could
have been removed and the label left unchanged.
To be on the safe side, I want to see a photo of the installed on the
instruments display.
How do I instruct someone remotely on how to get display installed
options screen on a HP 8920A? (see attached photo of a different 8920A
from an ebay auction)
I just need to know the correct chain of key presses on the instrument
to get to that screen.
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
|
Re: How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
Hello George
Thank you, you've saved me from heaps of digging through pdf's
I think the instructions are fairly straight forward, so no need
to dig out your 8920A.
I'll just cut and paste them into an email to the seller.
What options would you recommend that the 8920A be fitted with if
you wanted to work on HAM transceivers and homebrew items.
The one I have purchased comes with the following options :-
001 (High stability
reference)
003 (GPIB / RS232
interface)
004 (Audio
Signaling)
005 I believe this is a 512K memory upgrade
011 (CCITT Filter)
102 (Spectrum
Analyzer)
In time, I'm thinking of swapping out 003 for 103 (GPIB / RS232
interface / Parallel)
Possibly also swapping 011 for one of the other filters, not sure
which one yet.
The final thought would be up the power i/p from the standard 60W
to 100W with opt 016.
For the moment I just happy I'll get my hands on a HP8920A
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
PS: I'll now have to look for "HP 11807A opt 100 (RF Tools)",
instead of the "HP 11807E opt 100 (RF Tools)" I bought the other
week thinking that I'd buying a 8920B later on.
On 18/01/2021 23:44, george edmonds via groups.io wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Try this
To check your installed options:
1) Press the ¡°TESTS¡± button,
2) Select ¡°ROM¡± under procedure location
3) Select LIST_OPTS under procedure
4) Select RUN
5) The HP8920A will now list the included options on the screen
If necessary I can dig out my HP8920A and photograph the
procedure
George G6HIG Dover UK
On Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:18:05 GMT, DANIEL
RAFFERTY <daniel1967@...> wrote:
Hello HP8920 hive mind :-)
I am asking a seller to get me a photo of the
installed options/firmware
screen of an 8920A i have just bought.
He has given me the options from the rear
label, but the options could
have been removed and the label left
unchanged.
To be on the safe side, I want to see a photo
of the installed on the
instruments display.
How do I instruct someone remotely on how to
get display installed
options screen on a HP 8920A? (see attached
photo of a different 8920A
from an ebay auction)
I just need to know the correct chain of key
presses on the instrument
to get to that screen.
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
|
Re: How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
Try this
To check your installed options:
1) Press the ¡°TESTS¡± button,
2) Select ¡°ROM¡± under procedure location
3) Select LIST_OPTS under procedure
4) Select RUN
5) The HP8920A will now list the included options on the screen
If necessary I can dig out my HP8920A and photograph the procedure
George G6HIG Dover UK On Monday, 18 January 2021, 23:18:05 GMT, DANIEL RAFFERTY <daniel1967@...> wrote:
Hello HP8920 hive mind :-)
I am asking a seller to get me a photo of the installed options/firmware
screen of an 8920A i have just bought.
He has given me the options from the rear label, but the options could
have been removed and the label left unchanged.
To be on the safe side, I want to see a photo of the installed on the
instruments display.
How do I instruct someone remotely on how to get display installed
options screen on a HP 8920A? (see attached photo of a different 8920A
from an ebay auction)
I just need to know the correct chain of key presses on the instrument
to get to that screen.
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
|
Here is what I did. ?While it does not have anything to do with it working, I used one of the DC to DC ?converters that takes any reasonable voltage and will lower it to a value set by a pot on the board to give 5 volts to the video boards. ?I used a 12 volt wall cube to power the unit and that DC to DC converter to get to 5 volts for both the video board and the lm1881.
Looking at the video board with the 3 yellow pots and the inputs nearest you. ?Calling it pin 1 with a black wire, ?Ground that wire. pin 2 and 3 are empty. ?Pin 4 (yellow wire) not connected. ? Pin 5 ?(grey) goes to pin 1 of the lm1881. ?Pin6 (blue) not connected. ?Pin 7 ( green) to the video input coming from the center of the BNC ?of the 8924C. ? Pin 8 (red) not connected.
Looking at the data sheet for the Lm1881. ?Pin 1 goes to the grey wire coming from Pin 5 of the video board (see above for the same wire) ?Pin 2 has a .1 uF capacitor going to the video from the 8924, it is also to the green wire on pin 7 from above.
PIn 3 not connected. ? Pin 4 Ground. ?Pin 5 not connected.
PIn 6 has a 680 ?K resistor and a .1 uF in parallel going to ground.
Pin 7 not connected. ?Pin 8 goes to the 5 volts power supply.
I used the small 2 pin power connector on the video board for the power for that board and supplied it with 5 volts and a ground.?
Be sure to put the 50 K ohm resistors on capacitors 29,32,33,36 on the video board. ?Without those resistors the board looked like it was working but went all green after about 2 minutes. ?
Put a VGA monitor on the video output of the board and a BNC connector from the output of the 8924.
You will have to work your way through the menus on the video board to get it to correctly center on the screen. ?
I am thinking that if you hook the red, green and blue wires on the video board connector together you can get a white screen instead of green ,but never tried it.??
Ralph ku4pt
On Monday, January 18, 2021, 05:47:44 PM EST, Alexandre Souza <alexandre.tabajara@...> wrote:
I'm waiting for my GBS card to arrive and test it. By the photos you need a sync separator, so I connected a LM1881 chip to extract h-sync and v-sync, and I'll test it on RGB input (as a MDA signal, since the sync rate is near) and in the component input G signal (which should already have sync on that), Lets see what happens =)
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How to display installed options screen on a HP 8920A
Hello HP8920 hive mind :-)
I am asking a seller to get me a photo of the installed options/firmware screen of an 8920A i have just bought.
He has given me the options from the rear label, but the options could have been removed and the label left unchanged.
To be on the safe side, I want to see a photo of the installed on the instruments display.
How do I instruct someone remotely on how to get display installed options screen on a HP 8920A? (see attached photo of a different 8920A from an ebay auction)
I just need to know the correct chain of key presses on the instrument to get to that screen.
Best Regards
Danny G7TTR
|
Tried the GBS 8200 V4.0, CDMA service monitor E8285A. My results:
- Composite video into the Y input...No signal
- Composite video thru a LM1881 sync separator, video as G, HSync as Sync...No signal
- Composite video thru a LM1881 sync separator, video as G, Hsync as Hsync, VSync as VSync...No signal
Board working at 5.0V measured on board, works ok with composite video from an Amiga 600 on Y input of the board. Inputs changed with the left button as needed (YPbPr/RGBS/RGBHV).
Tried another scaler, Ambery AV-1 (also known as AV-1M)
- Composite video into the Y input - Perfect signal on screen, but wasn't able to fit entire signal on screen. This list allows attachments? I can send a photo.
Any tips? I will blog the results ASAP.
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I'm waiting for my GBS card to arrive and test it. By the photos you need a sync separator, so I connected a LM1881 chip to extract h-sync and v-sync, and I'll test it on RGB input (as a MDA signal, since the sync rate is near) and in the component input G signal (which should already have sync on that), Lets see what happens =)
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Em sex., 15 de jan. de 2021 ¨¤s 21:13, sv1mne < sv1mne@...> escreveu:
I see some very interesting photos? of the HP8924C with GBS8220 Video Converter. (mostly from wb7dmx and others, transferred from the old Yahoo! group)
In some of them it seems the GBS8220 was modified with some extra connections added to the main FPGA chip and also a Sync separator in an external PCB.
?
If anybody has used this configuration, please post some more information on the connections and settings used.
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Hi,
?
I see some very interesting photos? of the HP8924C with GBS8220 Video Converter. (mostly from wb7dmx and others, transferred from the old Yahoo! group)
In some of them it seems the GBS8220 was modified with some extra connections added to the main FPGA chip and also a Sync separator in an external PCB.
?
If anybody has used this configuration, please post some more information on the connections and settings used.
?
Thank you in advance
?
wb7dmx
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Re: How to write a PCMCIA SRAM card?
My experience with SRAM and Flash cards:
I used an old Gateway laptop with WinXP. I could read/write an SRAM card just the same as if it were a drive. I could also read/write a Flash card that came from an old Cisco router. If I remember, it was a Smart brand card. I don't know if my laptop had the optional 12V, or if that card required it.
As to multiple programs, the other poster was correct. Just copy everything to the root of the card. Obviously, you can't have files with the same name, but it seems that HP took care of that with the diagnostics that they provided. I had RF Tools, NA FM, AM Tests and EDACS all on one Flash card.
Make sure you have the program files that are for a FAT filesystem, not LIF. If the files have extensions (.prg and others), then you have the correct files.
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Re: 8920B low frequency limit
Hi Robert
I think that we are both making the same point but using slightly different language.
Somewhere I have an advertising flyer for the 8920A with splashed on the front page "New electronic attenuator increases reliability" unfortunately not dated. The key to when it happened is in the 2000 year catalog.
All of the batch of 8920S's I repaired that were fitted with the PIN diode attenuator said 400KHz to 1GHz on the front panel.
I think that with a 8920A it should be buyer beware until checked.
George G6HIG Dover UK On Wednesday, 6 January 2021, 20:00:16 GMT, Robert G8RPI via groups.io <robert8rpi@...> wrote:
I made a longer post earlier but it does not seem to have been approved by the moderator yet.
The A23 extended option list is in IODIAG2 (my not yet approved email said LISTOPT in error.)
I've put a photo of the screen in Photos / G8RPI. This also shows that the unit has a 0.4-1000MHz sticker. Interestingly it has no OPT055 on the option sticker.
Robert G8RPI.
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Re: 8920B low frequency limit
To repeat myself from the other group---
I have an 8935
RF gen goes down to 100KHz
Wally
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Re: 8920B low frequency limit
I made a longer post earlier but it does not seem to have been approved by the moderator yet.
The A23 extended option list is in IODIAG2 (my not yet approved email said LISTOPT in error.)
I've put a photo of the screen in Photos / G8RPI. This also shows that the unit has a 0.4-1000MHz sticker. Interestingly it has no OPT055 on the option sticker.
Robert G8RPI.
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Re: 8920B low frequency limit
Yes, that confirms that you have to check the individual instrument to be 100% sure. The information in catalogs indicate the 8920A should always have had a mechanical A23 module from new. I can find no formal reference to any option for the PIN A23 for the 8920a in catalogs or older spec sheets. However the 8920A datasheet on the Keysight website says the 8920A only goes to 30MHz unless you have option 055!? The early 8920B specification sheets around 1997 and 1997 catalog (catalog had both A & B listed) had the B signal generator going down to 250kHz and not option 055 listed. The first dated reference I can find for option 055 is in the 2000 catalog and that is only for the B. I have a suspicion that the late production A models were just a B with the A memory board and front panel fitted for customers who wanted compatibility with existing systems. Amtronix can convert a late A to a B so there can't be that much difference.
So unless you or someone you trust actually tests the generator output in the specific test set you cannot be 100% sure. The LISTOPTS test in ROM (may not be present in all firmware revisions) does give reasonable confidence if A23 Extended Measurement is indicated as installed.
Robert G8RPI.
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Re: 8920B low frequency limit
The units with the relay based attenuator should also have the .4-1Ghz label on the front ..this is true for the A's and B's
the early 8920A only had the relay based RF I/O? standard and the later /last vintages ( parallel printer port knock out ) had the option 55 usually marked as well as the front panel label.
the 8920B&8924 came standard with the electronic attenuator and? either no frequency range marked on the 8920b or the 30-1G on the 8924 .
I have seen some 8924's that had option 55 ....very rare and not sure the front label was changed.
I also thought the I/O configuration report would show the relay based attenuator but that report varies on the firmware level and model ...that test is not in all the firmware versions.
Have never seen and enhanced range A23 option? ...who knows ...marketing may have tried to put a more sophisticated spin vs. using relays in the title ( 42 years at HP ...great engineering ...horrible marketing )
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Re: 8920B low frequency limit
Hi Robert
As I said I have little experience with the 8920B. The really confusing issue with the 8920A is the front panel which gives the range as 400KHz to 1GHz even when option 055 is not fitted.
My tests on a later 8920A without option 055 fitted, showed that the output/input performance drops off a cliff below about 11MHz. No use generating say 400Khz if it cannot make it trough the input/output module.
My main reason for the posting was to warn potential buyers off the likes of a certain auction site that the 8920A HF/LF performance is not necessarily that being claimed.
You are no doubt aware that the average radio amateur in the UK now never goes above using DC, certainly at this point in the solar cycle.
Nice to hear from you directly, I always follow your input.
George G6HIG Dover UK
On Wednesday, 6 January 2021, 08:56:59 GMT, Robert G8RPI via groups.io <robert8rpi@...> wrote:
Bit of a cross post from HPAK group.
For 250kHz signal generator usable output the 8920A/B must have a mechanical (relay) A23 output module. Option 055 was the normal option for a mechanical input assembly on a 8920B. However lack of an option 055 mark is not conclusive. I have a later 8920B that has no 0ption 055 mark (2 option stickers present) but if you run the configuration list diagnostic it indicates "A23 extended measurement" is fitted. Testing against a 8566B confirms the signal generator output is flat down to 250kHz. So you have to check the unit to be 100% sure.
Robert G8RPI.
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Alexandre Souza
sv1mne