#file-notice Tektronix PRISM GPX3001 w/ 32GDP logic analyzer #file-notice
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Hi everyone!
This is my first post here, I am an embedded systems engineer and I do quite a bit of electronics. I had the opportunity to get a GPX3001 logic analyzer with one 32GPX module for a good price. It came with a lot of accessories. It has the following options: - Harddisk plus Keyboard (1Z) - Real-Time Performance Analysis 32PA (1A) - Upgrade to 32k Memory/Channel 32GPD (1S) - RS-232 Communication Pack (1C) - GPIB Communication Pack (2C) It came with 4 P6490 probes, 80 data leads total. I also got 2 binders full of documentation in physical form (which I scanned): - instructions-1200c01-rs_232c_comm_pack-070-6675-02.pdf - instructions-1200c02-gpib_comm_pack-070-7415-01.pdf - instructions-goscript-postscript_language_interpreter_software-061-4032-01.pdf - release_notes-prism_30c02-general_purpose_interface_bus-061-3857-01.pdf - release_notes-prism_32gpx-acquisition_module-061-3893-03.pdf - release_notes-prism_32pa-performance_analysis-061-3916-00.pdf - release_notes-prism-system_software-070-8009-11.pdf - user_manual-prism_3001-system-070-6672-04.pdf - user_manual-prism_30c02-general_purpose_interface_bus-070-8008-00.pdf - user_manual-prism_32gpx-acquisition_module-070-8465-00.pdf - user_manual-prism_32pa-performance_analysis_software-070-8494-00.pdf Since I found very little information on that beast, I took the time to scan everything and run the OCR on the resulting PDFs. I also dumped all the floppies. I put everything on archive.org here: I have some advertisement and guides that I haven't scanned yet. I may add them to the archive when I find some time. I also opened the device and found that the IDE hard drive interface board is very simple: one DIP IC and a handful of resistors. I haven't dismantled everything but on a first look I think that it could be easily recreated. With that out of the way, I have a problem with it. The 32GPX application SW refuses to load. I tried multiple ways: - Boot system from hard drive, insert 32GPX SW floppy and use the Load Application feature from the SAVE/RESTORE menu: "Load application operation failed." - Install the 32GPX SW from the floppy disk to the hard drive. The installation succeeds but when I reboot, software isn't found. Manually loading from the HDD fails also. - Disconnect the hard drive and boot. Load System SW from floppy at boot, succeeds. When prompted for Application SW, put in the 32GPX floppy. Loading starts and after a while says that no software could be found: "Software has not been loaded for: GPX1". I tried recreating a new 32GPX SW floppy disk, thinking the signal degraded after 25 years: - I found an old 3.5" 1.5MB - I taped the left-corner hole - I formatted it to 720KB inside the PRISM GPX3001 - I used an old Linux computer to perform a low-level copy of the original floppy using dd The duplicated floppy gives the exact same behavior as the original. Other programs from other floppies load fine. I ran both the system and the GPX32 diagnostic tools and have no error (except from an RS232 loopback test failing which I assume is safe to ignore). From these experiments, I know this is not a hard drive problem/filesystem corruption. I also believe that the floppy disk is likely intact since it is in very good condition and I had no error while dumping the disks. This leads me to believe there is something wrong on the hardware level, or I have the wrong software. Unfortunately, the 32GPX SW was not installed on the hard drive. I don't understand why since, according to the documentation, this should have come pre-installed from the factory. It appears that a user from this group had the same issue and was able to work around it a while back (12 years ago!!): /g/TekScopes/message/42138 . I hope that someone here remembers what it was? I think that this user is still active here. PS: I have just noticed, after having written all of this, that some GPX3001 binaries are available on . There are even ROM dumps! I will have a look at these tomorrow. I may try to disassemble the ROM files to see where the error might come from. Thank you for reading me and I hope someone will find the archive useful. All the best |
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Hey everyone,
I took a long time to answer, busy life, etc. etc. Thank you Jim for proposing your help by the way! I was able to fix this "Load application operation failed." issue when attempting to load the 32GPX application SW. It's very simple, it basically boils down to a dead on-board RTC cell battery. Here's a full description of the problem: If you load the "Diagnostics" utility, you can find under the "CPU" module a routine called "Set time/date". By running this, you will find a "SET TIME AND DATE" screen displaying the current date and time in real time. If you have the same problem I had, you will notice that the time passes much too fast (approx. 10 seconds every second in my case)! This happens because the RTC circuitry is uncalibrated. You can calibrate this circuitry by running another routine called "M Clock Adjust" which is located in the same area (Diagnostics -> CPU). This routine allows one to plug a scope onto a testpoint in order to calibrate the RTC circuitry (by setting a variable capacitor, refer to the Tektronix documentation), but I didn't need to do that. By simply running the "M Clock Adjust" routine, the RTC became stable (meaning "not going too fast" any longer). Now if you attempt to reload the GPX32 software, you will see that it finally works! Of course, since you have a dead battery, you will need to do this on every boot. You should change the button cell battery in order to fix this permanently (which is what I did). The 3V battery is a BR2325, 23.0x2.5 mm. Since (at least in my area) these are rather hard to find, you might be tempted to replace it with a more standard CR2325. Please know that contrary to the CR version, the BR2325 will hold its 3V voltage much longer as it loses its capacity. This means that a CR2325 might only last a couple of years while a BR2325 might last 10+ years. I just made up these numbers but you can look that up in the appropriate datasheet (I did this ~6 months ago and I'm now writing off the top of my head). Now my Tektronix works, but I'm anticipating a hard drive failure (the HDD is 30 years old on this machine!). I'm trying to replace it with a CF disk of roughly the same capacity (128MB), but I can't get it to work properly. I'll keep you posted if I manage to do something. Cheers! |
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