TDS3032 Will not complete Bootup

[daveyk]

I just replaced the Battery Backed-up RAM per advice on another thread.  I was extremely careful.

When powered-up, the scope shows the "Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope" splash screen and does not proceed beyond that.

Is there a reset key combination sequence?

I made four firmware upgrade floppies, but it will start the update process either, although you can see, and hear, it seeks the floppy sometime after boot-up starts, after the splash screen flickers a bit (but doesn't go away).

Damn, I am starting to panic now.  This leave me with only one more working 3032 and no back-up.

Dave

P.S. - As expected it can not be seen on the GPIB bus either 8-(

[voltsandjolts]

Sorry to hear about your TDS troubles.
That might have been my advice you read - I have indeed replaced the BB RAM with a blank device and it worked no problem.
Try a close visual inspection, re-seat all connections 

[daveyk]

I carefully tore it apart again, de-soldered the new Dallas DRAM from the Main board and put the old one back on and soldered it back in to place.  I then partially re-assembled the scope and it boots up okay again.

I guess I have to live with it forgetting its GPIB address and SPC and the time and date.

If I had the patience I would cut in to that damn chip and find the battery and try to hook-up and external battery to it.  I've heard or seen people on the internet doing that; but I don't have the patience.

I don't know if the new chip is bad, or it just needed initialized?  I couldn't find any information on how to do that on the web or in the "great" <cough><cough> service manual for it.

I'm told elsewhere or in here elsewhere that the scope's calibration tables are not stored in this BATTRAM chip, I dunno. 

When the new chip was on the board, I tried holding in the calibration button on the rear as turning it on, hoping it would allow an initialization or get me to the calibration menu.  That didn't work.  I'm not too worried if I screwed the calibration table up as I'll be sending this to TresCal very soon for a certification and they are supposed to be able to calibrate "tweak" these scopes, not just verify.

If the calibration table is not in the BATTRAM, where is is?  From the service manual, it may not even need to store the table anyway.

The new chip I got (I'm sure a Chinese ripoff) looks identical, albeit a different date code.  The graphic on the chip is the same.  The only thing it that the new chip does not have an indent, or any indication anywhere, to indicate pin one.  I went by the graphic.

So I don't know if the CHIP that took 6+ weeks to get here is bad, or if it must be programmed.

I emailed several Test Equipment calibration/service houses and haven't found any with experience, or ones that seemed to show me that they know anything about these scopes.  They just tell me to send them the scope and they will evaluate it and let me know if it can be fixed.  If I don't want to pay the $300 evaluation fee, they are willing to keep it for parts. Yaa right.  I'm not loosing my TDS3032.  I'll live with the inconvenience of the battery being dead in this RAM chip.

Dave

[daveyk]

"Sorry to hear about your TDS troubles.
That might have been my advice you read - I have indeed replaced the BB RAM with a blank device and it worked no problem.
Try a close visual inspection, re-seat all connections"

Even if it was your advice, no problem dude!  You just answered one question for me.  Your scope booted after replacing the device.

I un-soldered the new chip and soldered the old chip back on (I don't want to do that too many times before I break traces) and the scope is working again.   So maybe your comment confirms the new chip is bad.

There are several Chinese suppliers of the -120 version.  I would think those should be okay.  I think that means the chip can run at 120ns, which is faster than 150ns?

I just communicated the bad chip issue to the seller.  He had three days to respond.  Maybe he'll send me another chip or run and hide.  I had $33.29 in this as it was, so not a huge loss, but a disappointment.  I suspect EBAY will refund my money and send me a return label.  Does that doesn't help that I still need a chip and you just can't find these buggers.

Dave

[daveyk]

Interesting:


or...



I don't want to do that to my only working chip - lol.

[daveyk]

“at might have been my advice you read - I have indeed replaced the BB RAM with a blank device and it worked no problem.
Try a close visual inspection, re-seat all connections  ”

I ordered another Dallas chip from a place call “Nac”, I think out of Florida. They may be millitary surplus, I’m not sure. Someone in the Tektronix newsgroup sent me the link.

Dave

[james_s]

It doesn't take much patience to cut into a Dallas chip and attach a new battery, it's right below the top. You can't be bothered to spend 30 minutes and just get it done? Otherwise you could spend the $100 or whatever for a brand new genuine Dallas part, that's a pretty reasonable cost in the grand scheme of things to have a nice working scope.

[0culus]

Seems to me that you should be able to use a programmer of some kind to pull the data off the old one and flash it onto the new one. Then the new chip should be in exactly the same state as the old one. At least, that's the technique I saw when researching how to upgrade 2400 series scopes to more modern NVRAM and ditch the battery backed stuff.

[daveyk]

“n't take much patience to cut into a Dallas chip and attach a new battery, it's right below the top. You can't be bothered”

Patience might be the wrong word. Since the scope works with the chip with the dead battery, I would be afraid to break it in the attemp. If I get another chip that works, then I wouldn’t be afraid to did
Dremmal in to the chip.

It would be nice to have a few practice chips and I don’t.

Dave

[daveyk]

Seems to me that you should be able to use a programmer of some kind to pull the data off the old one and flash it onto the new one. Then the new chip should be in exactly the same state as the old one. At least, that's the technique I saw when researching how to upgrade 2400 series scopes to more modern NVRAM and ditch the battery backed stuff.

Sounds good but I don’t have a programmer and no experience with one. I really hope it is not needed.

Dave

[0culus]

https://groups.io/g/TekScopes/topic/tektronics_2465b_400mhz_nvram/14789304?p=Created,,,20,2,20,0

I can't find the one where the specific programmer is listed unfortunately. If I run across it again I'll make sure to share it. It'd be a tool that's worth adding to your bag of tricks though, especially if you want to maintain things yourself.

[daveyk]

UPDgATE:
I ordered a (new) BATT RAM out of Florida.  It has arrived today.  I ordered two Zif sockets (which I really don't think there is room for with the GPIB interface blocking wall installed).  I also order several machined (round lead carrier pins) for that chip.  They will be here tomorrow.  So I might have an answer on Wednesday if replacing the BATT RAM is possible. 

If the calibration tables are not stored in this device, where are they stored on a TDS3032?  Other people have told me that they are not stored on this Dallas chip.  That kind of make sense since the scope works fine with a dead DALLAS chip in it.  It just looses the date and baseline offset calibration.  Where are the calibration factors stored in a TDS3032?

Dave

[daveyk]

UPDATE: 27 November 2018
Replaced the BATT RAM with one I purchased out of Florida.  Ziff Sockets would not fit.  The correct pin sockets I ordered are still stuck in Texas.  I gave up and installed 24 lead carrier pins (old fashion).  I installed the "new" DS1742W-150 chip.  I partially re-assembled.  The scope booted on the first try!  The background was all read.  So I re-booted holding in the "B Trig" button to re-set it.  Got the normal blue background back.  I entered the time and date.  I ran the system tests and everything passed except the floppy drive (which is not yet attached and I don't think works anyway).  It is going through SPC now; looking good!

Now, I may Dremmel in to my old chip and try to get to the battery connections and be able to mount an external battery when this "new" batt ram decides to not work.

Dave