• mar. 22 novembre 2016

    HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter

    A very long time ago, I bought a venerable HP 3456A Digital Voltmeter. Back then, I had no clear idea what kind of device it is; but it was cheap. It worked quite fine (it is indeed not calibrated), but I noticed for a while that it was quite unstable …

    • dim. 18 septembre 2016

      HP 34970A Data Acquisition Unit - communication protocol

      In order to build a replacement display for the HP34970A data acquisition unit, I needed to understand the communication protocol between the CPU board and the front panel assembly.

      General description

      The unit is built with four boards:

      • A1 is the main bard, with the PSU, the main controller and …

      • sam. 17 septembre 2016

        HP 34970A Data Acquisition Unit - part 4

        After a summer pause, I'm back on my HP34970A repair project. In the previous post in this series, I've started to reverse engineer the serial protocol between the CPU board and the front panel, and implement a prototype of replacement display.

        OLED display

        I bought the bigest OLED display I …

        • dim. 26 juin 2016

          HP 34970A Data Acquisition Unit - part 3

          As explained in the previous post in this series, I've started to sniff the serial protocol between the main board and the display panel so I can replace the failed VFD by an OLED or TFT display managed by an arduino or similar.

          Protocol

          The serial communication takes place at …

          • mer. 22 juin 2016

            HP 34970A Data Acquisition Unit - part 2

            This is quick follow up of my previous blog post on my attempt to fix my recently acquired HP 34970A.

            In my hurry to replace the failing FRAM (FM24C04) chips, I also replaced the FRAM chip on one of my 2 plugin modules.

            Bad idea: the module then provoques an …

            • lun. 13 juin 2016

              HP 34970A Data Acquisition Unit

              I recently "scored" a HP 34970A with the DMM included and 2 plugin cards (HP 34901A and HP 34907A) for less than 200€. The plugins should be in working condition, but the main switch unit was almost "given" with the plugin modules since it is non functional.

              front view of the HP 34970A data acquisition unit

              It's in very …

              • mar. 19 avril 2016

                Tektronics 2445 scope PSU repair: part 3

                After having mostly destroyed the PSU of my Tek 2445, I've decided to be a bit less foolhardy and I've subscribed to the yahoo Tek group. I discovered that such a failure has already been reported there, also after a full recap of the preregulator and regulator of the power …

                • dim. 17 avril 2016

                  Lambda LPD 422 FM Bench PSU

                  This post is a quick presentation and teardown of a small bench power supply I bought on ebay a few weeks ago for something like 40€.

                  The Lambda LPD 422 FM dual regulated power supply.

                  It's an old unit, not sure it's exact age, but the components inside the unit seem to have date codes around 1971/1972. So …

                  • sam. 16 avril 2016

                    ZPB30A1 Electronic Load

                    A few weeks ago, I purchased a cheap electronic load from AliExpress (this one to be precise). It's a ZHIYU model ZPB30A1. It's specifications are:

                    • constant current mode
                    • max voltage: 30V
                    • discharge current: 0.2A to 9.99A (+/- 0.7% + 1 digit)
                    • max dissipated power: 60W
                    • voltage measurement error: 1 …