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Has please someone the 3.1 firmware (EPROM images)?

Thanks

On Thu, Nov 28, 2024 at 03:34 AM, Gianni Becattini wrote:

Has please someone the 3.1 firmware (EPROM images)?

11301 and 11302 use different F/W but I assume it is 11302 you want.
Also 3.1 is not a direct replacement for all previous versions so what is your current version ?
/H?kan

Thanks for answering. My scope is a 11302 and current EPROM version is 2.7, 160-447x-06

Updating the software is just a desperate attempt to see if something changes in my problem where the Enhanced Calibration fails (“Mainframe amplifier calibration failed”). I am working on it since a week, trying to recalibrate the interested sections. I tested a lot of reversible adjustments but I didn't obtain results. From time to time, it succeed (ever after a prolonged power down). All the single adjustments seem to be completed positively.

I have no more ideas and so I would try the update to see if something changes.

Gianni,
A change in firmware from 2.7 to 3.1 is not going to change the EA performance.
As I suggested in my response to your initial request for help, the graticule detection should be examined.

It occurs to me that you might not have executed all of the Extended diagnostic tests.
Access the full extended tests:
1. UTILITY menu select Ext Test and then Run.
2. Select the Vertical block then select AREA at the top of the display.

At this point you should see a list
All Areas
Vertical Ch Sw
Vertical Amp
Vertical System

3. Touch RUN located at the lower right corner.

If these all PASS, then access the Timebase BLOCK and run those.

If you suspect intermittent failures, you can LOOP the test indefinitely until you touch RUN again.

You can check each diagnostic BLOCK to be certain.

If indeed all tests PASS, then turn your attention to the graticule detection. This system relies on internal reflection caused by the beam crossing a graticule line. These are four optical sensors mounted to the touch panel board used to detect the faint light pulses reflecting in the CRT faceplate. The system is sensitive to high ambient light levels and the beam intensity.

Thanks for your suggestions, I work on them and update.

EVVIVA! (typycal Italian expression of great joy)

I was closing the email below, when I remembered something I read in the 11302 Firmware Replacement Technical Bulletin that very kindly Hakan Hintze sent to me with the 3.1 upgrade eproms. That sounded like "If the instrument fails to do a successful EA, run the GRAT-PREP procedure, Test List No. 24 in the CATS disk”.
This procedure allows to tune the screen alignment procedure and is really well done; it as formerly named in the manuals as “19 .BEAM_REGISTRATION”. It allows to set the scanning marks position and intensity and allows to see what the photodiodes “see”. I carefully performed it and …it works!
Thanks to everybody, without your help I could not succeed!
Gianni
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This oscilloscope is very complex and the first approach is disorienting. After several days with my brain inside it and in the manuals, perhaps I begin to understand something. The baby has at least three different problems, and I could fully understand just one, very simple:

1) the “stupid" problem: the dip switches are faulty and betray you blatantly - a stupid fault which creates great confusion. I temporary fixed them but I will replace them;

2) the “main” problem: the Enhanced Accuracy most of the times fails.
The failure: The Enhanced Accuracy fails with the message “Mainframe amplifier calibration failed”.
Early fail - When it fails, it fails always in the first stages. When it arrived to phase of “E” symbol in the attached diagram, it always complete the EA;.
When it works? But when does it succeed? In a world: at cold.
Success: When I do the EA immediately after power on, subsequent to a period off (20 minutes off or more). In these conditions the markers on the CRT the calibration shows are much brighter, with a halo (and EA works). In this way, I could even do positively two consecutive EA. But fe minutes later the EA fails.

3) enlarged screen - from time to time the screen get badly shifted to the right and / enlarged vertically. Perhaps it is in consequence of a failed EA, but not always.

4) all the extended tests pass, even looping.

5) optical issues - I dismounted the front panel and checked everything. I cleaned the four photodiodes with isopropyl (but tey were clean). On the colored optical filter, I found a small abrasion just in the area interested by the beam scanning photodiodes. I tried to remove it with toothpaste but I could only worsen the situation. So I remounted it facing outside. But @Clark, I believe that you had a good intuition, as I explain below.

6) documentation mismatched - this is one of my biggest problem, because the TekCATS is much newer than the manuals I could find and the tests are very different, so I don’t have a description for the various tests.

7) standardizers - I have no standardizers, so I try to do what I can. But there are tests, like vertical gain, where I could not find a workaoround.



BUT SOMETIMES IT WORKS! If I a) I keep it off for several minutes; b) switch it on and try the EA, in most of the times it works and the EA is correctly performed. And what I observe enforces the Clark’s optical theory.

I noted that I can predict the result:
when the EA will succeed, the calibration marks are very bright, with a marked halo;
when the EA will fail, the calibration marks are not very bright.

The brightness of the calibration marks does not dependent from the front panel settings, but is preset by the system. I think that it is an analog problem from the CRT circuit.

That is great news! I am happy that you were able to restore EA function and save another scope.

If you are able to update the firmware to 3.1, you will find significant improvements. Version 2.7 was a very clean release with no known bugs, as I recall. Version 3.1 is a feature upgrade.

Firmware version 3.1 includes many features that are available in the A-version such as histogram-based measurements(never done in an analog scope) and a one-touch shortcut to set up for delay time measurements with the counter-timer.
The most noticeable improvement is the intensity control. The early FW releases (2.7 and below) used a very complex algorithm to compute variables to manage physics of the CRT and the different intensity levels of text characters, xy trace, main trace and delayed trace. This is a messy task to make each appear independent when they all use the same MCP image intensifier. The extensive calculations required too much time and make the intensity control annoying to use. Version 3.1 is a big improvement.

Thanks! Without your intuition about the intensity In would not succeed.

Interesting: I thought that a strange behavior in the brightness control was a fault of my gear. I order the new EPROMs and see what it changes.

If you like, as soon as I have a draft for the new book with the 11302, I make available a pdf for you.

Greetings from Florence, Italy

Gianni

I will be honored with a copy.

During the 1130x development, I was told that I had psychic debugging skill. It seems to work over a great distance too!

nooo, I am honored to be in touch with one of my heroes! ?

Here you can find the drafts:


(smaller file in lower resolution)

Be merciful and forgive my nonsenses…

Any suggestion/correction is well accepted.

Thanks again

Gianni

Gianni,

You are truly amazing! You produced a stunningly beautiful draft while troubleshooting a completely foreign instrument.

Thank you for the chance to examine your draft copy. I shall send a summary of my comments tomorrow evening (UTC-8), 1 Dec.

As for hero, I lost that status when my daughter started middle school (grade 6). I remain content with my delusion of adequacy.

Gianni,

You have produced another magnificent masterpiece worthy of these electronic works of art! I salute you, Sir!

Best regards,

Mike

You are very kind, thanks Mike!

It is just love, pure love… ?

And being retired with the possibility to do what you want with all old stuff is wonderful!

Thanks again

Gianni