Author Topic: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem  (Read 4060 times)

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Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« on: July 20, 2021, 11:05:03 am »
I have an Agilent E4420B signal generator.

In working condition, but on startup, shows an error: Data corrupt or stale; EEPROM copy of <filename>

I decided to check the EEPROM chips for errors (read-write) in the programmer. It turned out that there were no problems with them. But after that there were even more errors (-250 and -253).
The battery was replaced.
But, unfortunately, nothing changed.


« Last Edit: July 20, 2021, 12:04:08 pm by vladsol »
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2021, 12:00:52 pm »
After that (De-solderingthe EEPROM's U106 & U107 and soldering them back), the serial number of the device disappeared (AA000000000).
I can confirm that contents of these IC's is not changed since de-soldering.

« Last Edit: July 20, 2021, 12:10:57 pm by vladsol »
 

Offline Aheld

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2021, 03:14:24 pm »
Hi,
Might it be that the eeprom had some kind of internal structure, which is destroid?
Do you still have the content of this eeprom to mirror it to new eeprom device?

I know from other devices that eeproms become „stupid“ if the supply voltage is on crirical value. Then sometimes devices read wrong information or destroy content while writing. I have comparable generator and since weeks, I have „changing elkos“ on my to do list, because of strange behaviour.

Maybe this could be also a good idea before fixing eeprom issues?

 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2021, 07:43:21 pm »
After I unsoldered the EEPROMs, I dumped their contents.
For convenience, I soldered the sockets for the EEPROM chips.

EEPROM chips go through erasing - writing - reading without errors. Recovered their contents from a dump - but that didn't help. All voltages on the CPU board are normal.
The waveforms on the EEPROM address pins and data pins are normal...And i can conclude that reading is happening from both chips.

However, I cannot find the line that matches the serial number of the device in the IC106 & IC107 dump files
Is the serial number of the device actually stored in one of them?

« Last Edit: July 20, 2021, 07:55:16 pm by vladsol »
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2021, 05:50:29 am »
hi,
what eep's are in there?
cause one time with a simple at24c01c (they have different algo, like xilinx ones, if you compare them with st and other mainline ones) me and a more experienced electronics engineer with lot of experience, took it in the face: the eep programmer read/verified OK the eep, but in fact, the eep programmer used the 'mainline' algorithm so the read/write/verify was pure garbage, but the garbage 'checked out'.
we finally nailed it out (cause the machine controlled by that eep told us we are stupid, so back to bench and correctly programm the eep)
so don't exclude a simple mistake on your eep parts on verifying side wiyh your eep programmer.
put on the table what eep/ the data you extracted and the programmer you used, maybe someone see something
in your case, the 'machine' tells you something you don't catch
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2021, 11:48:29 am »
Both EEPROM's are AT28C256
IC107
IC106

 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2021, 05:58:50 am »
as far as i remember, those ones are 'standard' algorythms between different suppliers, it was not the case of that at24c01 example i mentioned, so your eeprom programmer should normally do the trick
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2021, 06:06:14 am »
i just opened E4420B-U106-AT28C256E@PLCC32.BIN, seems legit(the first part looke like a version, that's fine, sometimes the firmware guys put some 'signature' at the end of the file too), except lot of that content is for me a little bit too repetitive
the 2'nd one bin file gave me the same impression, that the reading is corrupted, even at starting of the file
what programmer do you use?
« Last Edit: July 23, 2021, 06:13:08 am by perieanuo »
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2021, 07:09:59 am »
I don't think there is a problem with the programmer.
I use it quite often, and have never seen any problems.
Xgecu XGpro
 

Offline TheSteve

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2021, 02:47:06 pm »
It does sound like the eeprom data is corrupted. It may have been further corrupted during read/write. I believe you need a full calibration for it to be correct again.
VE7FM
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2021, 03:12:53 pm »
sorry, i don't trust that programmer, but i don't want to start again programmers choice, i use batronix for delicate stuff like yours.
like @TheSteve said, you may be provoked corruption while verifying the eep
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2021, 07:43:07 pm »
Here, in addition to the EEPROM, there is also a copy of this (presumably) data itself in SRAM.
Initially (!), That is, BEFORE I removed the EEPROM chips, there was an error with the EEPROM COPY of TIMEBASE_DAC_FILE ... and RAM COPY OF TIMEBASE_DAC_FILE - there were no other errors.

From the description of error codes:

Data corrupt or stale; EEPROM copy of <filename>.
The EEPROM copy of a file is either corrupt or otherwise unusable. The
system automatically updates the non-volatile RAM copy of the EEPROM
copy
using a default initialization.

Data corrupt or stale; RAM copy of <filename>.
The non-volatile RAM copy of a file is either corrupt or is out of date with
the EEPROM master copy (if one exists). The system automatically
re-initializes the file from EEPROM (if appropriate) or from a default
algorithm. A potential cause is a failing backup battery. (The battery was checked).

So we have two COPIES of files in SRAM and in EEPROM. But WHERE are the contents of these files copied from?

To justify this particular (Xgecu) programmer, I can say that I work with it very often. I flash NAND Flash chips (even large ones in a TSOP-48 package), different EEPROMs, and I NEVER had any problems. Perhaps you have other information on this subject, but I am sure of it.

 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2021, 05:30:57 am »
i think one of eeps is calibration data, he gets some standard initial calibration data from flash, after calibrating the device he is updated with the calculated values from that calibration procedure. maybe the other one keeps the general settings, serial number etcaetera, tbo i don't know that particular device
one of them maybe can be tricked installed a virgin eep and calibrating, but the one keeping more vital information, should be written with correct data i guess, lookup for people that can provide you some working copies of flash+eeproms, that way you're covered if they doublecheck for example serial no in flash and eep
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2021, 10:40:22 am »
Description for some of the memory chips:


« Last Edit: July 26, 2021, 10:42:14 am by vladsol »
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #14 on: July 27, 2021, 06:51:28 am »
so one is fw, second is cal data
can you try to upgrade fw and recalibrate after? this should eliminate your problem
imho, the fw eep content is the important one, the cal eep should be rewritten with standard calibration procedure
seems the bootloader is in one of the rom IC, so it should be simply to upgrade fw
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2021, 12:06:57 pm »
Unfortunately, I cannot update the firmware because the serial number and model of the device have been changed.
We need to find a way to flash the old serial number.
It is very strange that my dumps do not contain it (or it is not stored in text form).
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2021, 12:12:51 pm »
I re-read the contents of the U106 and U107 chips (after I wrote the original contents on them).
And I noticed some differences.

U106:



U107:
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #17 on: July 27, 2021, 09:32:24 pm »
Is it possible to set the serial number + model number via gpib?
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #18 on: July 28, 2021, 07:06:36 am »
i think it's only valid for getting sno, no setting it
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #19 on: July 28, 2021, 08:39:31 pm »
I've set the SN with SCPI command. But not the model number.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2021, 09:00:21 pm by vladsol »
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #20 on: July 29, 2021, 06:44:57 am »
exactly, the pdf doesn't say write the sn, only read on that series
the read reports some valid sn, just my curiosity speaking here...?
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #21 on: July 29, 2021, 07:03:31 am »
exactly, the pdf doesn't say write the sn, only read on that series
the read reports some valid sn, just my curiosity speaking here...?

SERV:PRODUCTION:CAL 165,0,38320193.15332;

38320193 is the sn. 15332 - country code (GB)
 

Offline perieanuo

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #22 on: July 29, 2021, 07:32:06 am »
I re-read the contents of the U106 and U107 chips (after I wrote the original contents on them).
And I noticed some differences.

U106:



U107:

searching for that sno in your eep's content, i noticed u106 you posted before content stops at 3FFF :) you have print screen with 4bxx :) and for U107 also at address 100 i have totally different content on my screen, that means we can't assume their content is fine, maybe you choose by error wrong device when backup the eep's.
try at least to re-backup them as they are, then replace the cal eep with virgin one and see what happens, maybe it will be reconstructed by the firmware
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #23 on: July 29, 2021, 08:09:31 am »
After installing the serial number via SCPI, I also tried to find it in the EEPROM - it is not there in clear text (text or hex).
I also noticed that after changing the serial number, the contents of the U107 did not change at all. Only the contents of U106 have changed.
As for the dumps, there is an error in the file names. The file named U106 is actually from U107 and vice versa.

In addition - there is no change in the behavior of the device, even if U107 is completely removed.
Well... Yes, i can try to erase U107 completely.
 

Offline vladsolTopic starter

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Re: Agilent E4420B Signal generator EEPROM problem
« Reply #24 on: July 29, 2021, 08:27:35 am »
I erased the contents of U107.
After starting the device and then turning it off, nothing was written to U107.
But if i write an old dump to it and change the serial number, then the hostid in the data on the U107 also changes.

Managed to get the serial number and model back. But hostid has changed.
SERV: PRODUCTION: CAL 165,10,2000.0906000000
= Equal to ESG-2000B
  as it was originally.
Do numbers after 0906 indicate installed software options?


« Last Edit: July 29, 2021, 12:01:12 pm by vladsol »
 


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