Author Topic: Agilent 3458A Repair  (Read 14551 times)

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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #25 on: July 12, 2018, 05:51:30 am »
Ian. one thing you should do is run the full autocal, if you have not done so.

Well, I have tried ACAL DCV a few times and it fails at start.

Ian.
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Offline Zucca

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #26 on: July 12, 2018, 08:12:59 am »
Can't know what you don't love. St. Augustine
Can't love what you don't know. Zucca
 

Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #27 on: July 16, 2018, 10:34:55 am »
Hi all,

UPDATE:

I contacted Keysight.

Date of manufacture:- July 2009.

They say A3 boards are for internal repairs only and the 3458A needs sent to them. I am disputing this as their website claims it's orderable and offers trade-in discount...…...As far as I am aware some of you guys have purchased A3 boards from them....correct?

Ian.
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Offline quarks

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #28 on: July 17, 2018, 02:42:00 pm »
Hello Ian,

I have bought an A3 board from Keysight in Boeblingen Germany a few years ago.
I do not know if they still sell any, but you can try.

good luck

 

Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #29 on: July 17, 2018, 04:51:53 pm »
Hi all,

Got a reply from Keysight UK and they say they are now checking with the parts team in the US to see if I am able to order the A3.

Ian.

UPDATE (18/7/18):
Got quote from Keysight UK......good to go regarding ordering the A3. It's described as a "Tested Fresh Board".

« Last Edit: July 18, 2018, 03:09:34 pm by IanJ »
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Offline retroware

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #30 on: July 20, 2018, 04:32:19 pm »
As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently went through the A3 exchange process with Keysight.  All in all it was a very pleasant transaction (other than the price!). My old A3 was quite drifty as measured by CAL72.  The new unit is very stable. It has moved a total .015ppm over a two week period.

I hope your experience ends up being similar.
 
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #31 on: September 14, 2018, 02:41:31 pm »
Hi all,

Finally got around to an A3 exchange with Keysight.
Photo below old & new board side by side......and it powered up.

Have fitted the new board and powered up........my errors & lockups have gone, so now requires a bit of testing & CAL. Will leave it powered for a few days before attempting.
PS. ERR shown is because it wants an ACAL........which it's doing. Hopefully all will be fine. It's fine, all ERRs cleared.
I managed to get a bottom shield from Adrian, including the small A3 board cover....so all is there now physically.

Never thought I'd have one 3458A let alone two!, great fun!.......but the plan I guess is to sell this one at some point.

Ian.

« Last Edit: September 14, 2018, 03:21:18 pm by IanJ »
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Offline TiN

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #32 on: September 14, 2018, 03:34:18 pm »
Selling 3458 is a volt-nut capital crime. Those wrong buttons bothers me too  ;) :)
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #33 on: September 14, 2018, 03:39:47 pm »
Hi all,

Forgot to say......the filter gauze deteriorated/fell apart so am sourcing some new material to cut to size . Does anyone know what mesh size is fitted normally. I am thinking 50 or 100 mesh.

Ian.
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #34 on: September 14, 2018, 03:52:17 pm »
Those wrong buttons bothers me too

The funny thing is it's not as if it's just the rods that are the wrong size, the aperture is sized accordingly within the front panel itself.......which leaves me wondering either they were changed out at some point from some other model.......or they did indeed make a batch this size.

Can just see in the attached piccy.

Ian.

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Offline TiN

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #35 on: September 14, 2018, 04:09:17 pm »
Button cap is wrong. It's a separate part.
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #36 on: September 15, 2018, 01:44:52 pm »
Hi all,

Did a bit more work this afternoon, piccy attached, repaired 3458A at the top.

I have run a quick DCV CAL 0 and CAL 10.00000 using a PDVS2 as source and so far so good. Got caught out for a few mims when CAL 0 was failing, turns out I hadn't disabled the secure jumper on the cpu board.
The new Snaphat batteries I fitted are working fine.......but I did notice (per M.J.Lorton's 3458A) that the new batteries I purchased were date stamped older than the ones fitted.....but changed them out anyways.

The display is slightly brighter on the new one also, my original is an older Feb. 2000 machine after all.

PS. If I can find some button caps........I'll change them  ;)

PPS. I now have an air-con unit in my workshop so the temperature is pretty stable day & night......so will leave both the 3458A's running 24/7 for comparison.

Ian.
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Offline TiN

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #37 on: September 15, 2018, 02:13:49 pm »
I thought you had original 3458 traceable calibrated at lab?  :-//
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Offline dl1640

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #38 on: September 16, 2018, 12:16:30 am »
The original machine is from year 2000 but with Keysight panel

通过我的 PRA-AL00 上的 Tapatalk发言

 

Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #39 on: September 16, 2018, 09:13:49 am »
The original machine is from year 2000 but with Keysight panel

通过我的 PRA-AL00 上的 Tapatalk发言

I replaced it with a new front panel.......I still have the original HP one (very old looking).

Ian.
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #40 on: September 25, 2018, 07:58:35 pm »
Hi all,

Playing with this 3458A and I can't get it to recognize the GPIB connection.

If I plug in the cable then RESET (keypad) on my working 3458A I will get LSTN, and the CONNECTION EXPERT on my PC will recognize address 22.
On this 3458A though when I plug in I get nothing, and I have checked the address is set to 22, and trying CONNECTION EXPERT nothing is listed either.

I did try the procedure per the service note 13A (albeit I think my A5 board is much newer) and the SRQ test passes per the note.

The GPIB connector socket looks good, no corrosion or bend pins etc.

I'm using a new 5mtr GPIB cable, but it does seem to work on my other 3458A......albeit I haven't had a chance to properly test.
I did try an 82357B (clone) and I get nothing there also.

Ideas?

Ian.
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Offline TiN

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #41 on: September 25, 2018, 08:20:43 pm »
What is response on ID? command? I also always had various issues with Agilent pod, so I stopped using it since long ago. Using NI and Agilent E5810As instead.
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #42 on: September 25, 2018, 08:37:24 pm »
What is response on ID? command? I also always had various issues with Agilent pod, so I stopped using it since long ago. Using NI and Agilent E5810As instead.

No responce from any command.....as if it was unplugged!......no LSTN on the display at any time.

The usb interfaces are very intermitted for sure, I am mainly using an 82350B PCI card which is miles better (but not perfect).

I just wondered if there was something else I needed to enable or something before I start looking/scoping a hardware fault (160/161 etc?).

Ian.
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Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #43 on: September 28, 2018, 02:14:21 pm »
Hi all,

GPIB working now......I replaced both 75ALS160 & 161 transceivers and it's fine now.

I had scoped the I/O and it was dead, but I was seeing some wierd voltage levels on some of the signals. The controller I thought was probably ok because the enable and direction signals from the 9914 looked ok. Digikey had stock.

Pic below after changing out the IC's and clean up.

Ian.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2018, 02:19:03 pm by IanJ »
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Offline TiN

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #44 on: September 28, 2018, 02:24:34 pm »
Great, thanks for follow up. I hope my third 3458 does not have dreaded new SMT version of A5.
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Offline ap

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #45 on: September 28, 2018, 03:52:31 pm »
Have seen many 3458a's with broken 160/161's. One of its standard deseases...
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Offline dl1640

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #46 on: September 29, 2018, 04:08:42 am »
probably the transceivers in my 3457 are not good, after GPIB interface clear the program will lost the instrument after an un-predictable time period.
the only way to get connected again is to issue GPIB interface clear once more, didn't have time to look into deep.  :scared:
 

Online IanJTopic starter

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #47 on: October 12, 2018, 03:34:49 pm »
Hi all,

Decided to take some readings from my 3458A's and see where they were, primarily interested in No.2. I have been playing around with some hardware & software to stabilize the workshop temperature 24/7 and can now play with the 3458A's knowing the ambient is stable. At the moment i've recorded 0.5degC change in past 36hrs and will tweak the setpoints to get it better.

No.1 (Feb 2000) = my original unit
No.2 (Jul 2009) = Repaired unit, new A3 board.

No.2 seems to be running a bit warm (factory flat type filter with spacer plate etc installed) compared to No.1 (original cup type filter), so I ran some tests with various materials to see how they compare including removing the metal spacer as it looks like it could restrict airflow.

The best I came up with (apart from no filter!) is a piece of stainless steel filter mesh cut to size and fitted without the plate but with the guard. This brought the temp down to just 1 degC above No.1.

Here's my tests of No.1 & No.2 before abandoning No.2 test to fix the filter issue.

No.1:
CAL? 72
36.4 to 36.7 degC
1-day Drift PPM = 0.0132
.....7-day test on-going.

No.2:
CAL? 72
40.4 to 41.2 degC
1-day Drift PPM = -0.3564
.....abandoned test

PS. Thanks to TiN for the spreadsheet idea (xdevs site), I've now made my own......

Filter removed and choosing mesh size:


App running controlling air-con unit and heater. Based on USB-TnH SHT10 temp probe.


Ian.


« Last Edit: October 12, 2018, 03:36:47 pm by IanJ »
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Offline Towger

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #48 on: October 12, 2018, 04:00:41 pm »
A good excuse to buy a thermal camera!
 

Offline Kleinstein

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Re: Agilent 3458A Repair
« Reply #49 on: October 12, 2018, 04:11:59 pm »
An obvious point to check would be the power consumption. Different board versions can have different power requirement. Normally the newer parts tend to be lower power - but with all the replacement boards the new A3 might take more.
 


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