Agilent 53132A Counter Repair (FIXED and Upgraded)

[HighVoltage]

Good to have the confirmation that it fitted and congratulations of the repair.

[HighVoltage]

I got two more for repair
1 x 53132A
1 x 53131A

Both were free but they are in horrible condition.
One turns on with errors (But weak VFD), the other does not do anything
Missing windows, missing switch buttons
Broken and corroded BNC connectors.

Seems like a nice winter job.

On one of them the little rubber (?) distance foot is melted away to gunk.
May be the instrument was in a bad environment.

 

[TheSteve]

Quite the winter project indeed. One of my 53132A's had the rubber melt, it was a puddle on the lower chassis, no sign of it was left on the PCB itself. Looks like your unit was stored on its side and it ran down the PCB which is uglier and likely no fun to clean up at all. I have a spare display window but it is likely easier for you to get a few from Keysight directly along with whatever other parts you need.

[texaspyro]

On one of them the little rubber (?) distance foot is melted away to gunk.
May be the instrument was in a bad environment.

Nope, just polyurethane doing what it wants to do...  revert back to its natural state of primordial goo.  HP's (electrostatic printer for 9100 series calculators) and Tektronix's formulation for printer platen rollers (1503 TDR) are particularly good at it...  (Hint... look at 3M cold shrink tubing for rebuilding those)

I had to clean and replace the snot glob in my 53132A and it lived a cushy indoor life.

[HighVoltage]

Ok, the first one is fully cleaned up and ready to be assembled again.
It was so much sticky, nasty dirt everywhere, it took several deep cycle bath tubs in pure alcohol, to take it all off.

Repair so far:
1. One power resistor exchanged in the power supply
2. All 5 BNC connectors replaced to new
3. New VFD installed

Seems to work again, the new VFD is nice a bright.



 

[jadew]

That looks great. I had the same experience with the little rubber foot, got on everything.

[HighVoltage]

Ok, the second broken counter is fixed.

Faillure:
- All LED light up but nothing showed up on the VFD.

Problem:
- No high voltage power to the VFD.
- 5V supply was OK
- 38V supply was bad
 
Broken parts:
- VR1 and VR2 both bad
- (DIODE-ZNR 6.2V 5pct PD=1.5W IR=5UA)

Solution:
- Installed 2 new zener diodes
- Installed new VFD
 
Repair done!

[glarsson]

That PCB is missing one XLINX so it's a 53131A, no a 53132A.
Never seen that extra PCB, with the three blue coax cables, in any 5313xA. What option is that?

[texaspyro]

Where are you getting the VFDs?

[HighVoltage]

Never seen that extra PCB, with the three blue coax cables, in any 5313xA. What option is that?

There are a few interesting things in this 53131A
I am not sure if this board with the blue cables is an option or was standard in the early counters.
The small blue cable is to take the 10MHz output from the Option 010 (High Stability) board to the main board output.

The little circuit board withe the 3 blue cables has a relay and can switch the 10 MHz output to two different locations on the main board:
Location 1: EXTERNAL 10 MHz OUT
Location 2: Ref. IN
May be it is for self calibration purpose? I am not sure and did not read up on it.

Interestingly this counter has the high stability crystal option 010 but there are no power supply cables going from the power supply to the Option 010 board, like usual (J2 on PCB not populated).
Instead it is powered by the ribbon cable.

[HighVoltage]

Where are you getting the VFDs?

Here is a picture after calibration with the new VFD installed.
What a difference!
It is like new from a brightness and sharpness point of view.

After searching forever, I got very lucky to get two brand new VFDs but unfortunately the seller does not have any more.

[glarsson]

My Agilent 53132A with factory HS oven (option 010) does not have the extra power cable. The oven is powered through the flat cable only. The service manual mentions that the extra power cable isn't always used. Perhaps only when the oven requires it (depending on manufacturer/model number?).

[HighVoltage]

My Agilent 53132A with factory HS oven (option 010) does not have the extra power cable. The oven is powered through the flat cable only. The service manual mentions that the extra power cable isn't always used. Perhaps only when the oven requires it (depending on manufacturer/model number?).

Very interesting.
My two other 53131A both have the extra power cable from the power supply to the 010 option board.
Slightly different part numbers on the crystal oscillator:
10811-60160
10811-60161

[glarsson]

The HS oven in my 53132A is 10811-60160. The PCB it is mounted on does not have P2 mounted (the coax connector for the blue wire) but it does have J2 mounted (for the power supply) but plugged into it is a connector that only connects the two pins closest to P2 together.

[glarsson]

Image of P2 and J2.

[glarsson]

The main PCB of my 53132A does not have connectors mounted for the blue coax wires. Also, the tension converter for the display is not on a transformer based design on a daughter board, it is based on a capacitor/diode ladder and is placed on the main PCB. The melting rubber for is not a melted gray goo, it is black in pristine condition.

[HighVoltage]

The main PCB of my 53132A does not have connectors mounted for the blue coax wires. Also, the tension converter for the display is not on a transformer based design on a daughter board, it is based on a capacitor/diode ladder and is placed on the main PCB. The melting rubber for is not a melted gray goo, it is black in pristine condition.

Can you show a picture of this?
How old is this 53132A of yours?

All my 53131A and 53132A have the daughter board for making the VFD voltage.

[glarsson]

I don't know when it was manufactured as it was bought used. I got it cheap with handle and bumpers missing. Unexpectedly it arrived with option 010, squeaky clean inside and outside, intact rubber foot on PCB backside, bright VFD, etc. Could have been worse.      Bought NOS handle and bumpers on eBay...

The main PCB has a date code of week 30 2008 and the latest component date code I have found is week 24 2008.

One picture showing 38V converter. Need more pictures?

[HighVoltage]

I don't know when it was manufactured as it was bought used. I got it cheap with handle and bumpers missing. Unexpectedly it arrived with option 010, squeaky clean inside and outside, intact rubber foot on PCB backside, bright VFD, etc. Could have been worse.      Bought NOS handle and bumpers on eBay...

The main PCB has a date code of week 30 2008 and the latest component date code I have found is week 24 2008.

One picture showing 38V converter. Need more pictures?

Very nice!
My counters are all older and have the extra board.
I will have a look out for a newer model.

[HighVoltage]

Yesterday I calibrated all my "old" counters against my HP GPS based 10 MHz reference and had them run over night to see the drift.

Here is the result in the picture.
Without analyzing the numbers, it appears that they are very stable after 24h.
They all have the option 010 installed.

   

[HighVoltage]

It seems that there are at least 2 different VFDs used in these counters:

One made by itron / Japan and one made by Samsung in South Korea
Both are interchangeable, but the metal frame around them has to be bent a little, to make the itron version fit, when the samsung was installed before.

[Jf2014]

Where are you getting the VFDs?

Probably in eBay

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Agilent-HP-Frequenz-Zahler-Display-Itron-CC1187G/222736101378

[chinapp]

I encounted the same error: fail FRN /fail mesr ,but the falt part is not the U40 IC

[HighVoltage]

I encounted the same error: fail FRN /fail mesr ,but the falt part is not the U40 IC

FRN errors are not good!
Usually it is the front end that is dead.
You need to look at the the first amplifier stage, which is most likely dead.
But the service manual and schematics are available and you can find your way through and get it repaired.

[analogRF]

Ok, the first one is fully cleaned up and ready to be assembled again.
It was so much sticky, nasty dirt everywhere, it took several deep cycle bath tubs in pure alcohol, to take it all off.

Repair so far:
1. One power resistor exchanged in the power supply
2. All 5 BNC connectors replaced to new
3. New VFD installed

Seems to work again, the new VFD is nice a bright.

Hi, where did you get the new VFD? I need to replace mine as it is very dim with non-uniform intensity on various segments