In message <20040710022945.C7F423D35_at_spies.com>
aek_at_spies.com (Al Kossow) wrote:
> I'm of the Tony Duell school here.. Document as much as you can if you care
> about using it in the future.
I'm of the "If it's too expensive or you can't get a service manual, build
your own" school. I'm currently working on a fairly simple dual-channel
linear power supply with GPIB interface, with commands conforming to
IEEE488-2. Thankfully Agilent were nice enough to leave a scanned copy of
HP's "A Tutorial Guide to the GPIB Bus" on their FTP site.
The idea is, you can control it from the front panel fairly easily (e.g.
press CH1, then VOLTAGE, then, say, 12.0 <ENTER> to set the voltage to 12V).
Just another spare-time project - at least digital meters don't jam (I've got
a Farnell L30B with a jammed left voltage/current meter).
> The PC stuff is 'proprietary' as well, with the exeception of a few card
> vendors, you can't find out from them how it works (or doesn't...)
I found that with the HP 1650B. Dead CPU? Replace the whole board. Dead
resistor on the acquisition board? Replace the board!
Unfortunately the three words "Proprietary and confidential" seem to have
basically stopped manufacturers giving away schematics. That applies to Tek
and HP/Agilent especially - their service manuals are basically just bits of
paper telling you which board has which part number and what to swap.
My Tek 466 Service Manual not only covers the operation of the scope, it also
contains full schematics, with the waveforms and voltages at various points
shown on the diagram.
I still think the only reason Tek got away with calling the 466 "portable"
was the fact that it's got a handle. Not that I care, it does its job and it
does it well.
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem_at_dsl.pipex.com | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... "Bother", said Pooh, as he failed the dope test.
Received on Sat Jul 10 2004 - 02:28:20 BST