Hinge whinge / sanity check, E3631A

[arcitech]

I scored a pair of E3631A power supplies to help along my education on the neo-retro era test instruments, one working and one not, and was excited about how easy the chassis hinge makes the work smoother.

But, oh no, did I confuse my numbers? The one I opened has no such hinge. Looked it over an embarrassing number of times. Both are newer Agilent branded and assembled in SEA (one Singapore and one Malaysia, can't tell you which the broken one's from at the moment).

Were hinges ditched when moving manufacturing offshore shuffled the COGS deck (materials/complexity vs the average wage hour)? Or am I just hallucinating the various videos I've watched? I've hunted around to no avail.

I'm to scared of disappointment to open the working one, especially since the non-working one got even more busted up in transit (even bent the front chassis ears). I've had such shite luck with seller no-fux-given packaging. At least it was the already broken one!

[IanJ]

Didn't know the 3631A came in an hinged/unhinged variants! The one I repaired was Agilent branded, not sure its exact age though.

Beware knackered SMD resistors on the digital board, i had loads fail in my unit. Have heard others say the same.

Ian.

[arcitech]

Didn't know the 3631A came in an hinged/unhinged variants! The one I repaired was Agilent branded, not sure its exact age though.

Beware knackered SMD resistors on the digital board, i had loads fail in my unit. Have heard others say the same.

Ian.

Thanks for the advice. Indeed it looks as if this chassis is entirely comprised of two structures: a transformer brace, and one stamped sheet that's later bent to form the three sides. This is how it comes out of the outer case (the bent front panel 'ears' are from the shipping damage).

Based on the SN, if runs are 1-indexed, this _might_ be the first of a run from Singapore's mfg line (or maybe the first of _all_ runs from the island). Still haven't opened my Malaysian one yet...

[alm]

I don't remember details, but I have seen at least two different frame styles between the 2U high E363x/E364x series. I figured it must have been earlier vs later models, but it's possible they used both styles in the same model.

I was dealing with half a dozen of these supplies (different models) at that time, so the details are a bit fuzzy.

[arcitech]

The Malay-mfg'd (working) one's got a hinge. Hooraaauuuugh.....