Products > Test Equipment

Aeroflex IFR3413 IFR3414 IFR3416 Signal generator

<< < (3/4) > >>

G0HZU:
To be fair, I did initially ask on the Marconi forum if it was OK to post stuff about IFR and Aeroflex and I was told that it was fine by one of the moderators. However, this may not be an opinion shared by everyone on that group...

Eevblog is probably the best forum to discuss test equipment because it will get loads more views and it's easier to post up technical content via attachments etc. The thread will also stay open for updates and it will hopefully be easy to find with a search engine.

It would also be nice to provide somewhere that lists lots of common faults and how to fix them. I've fixed quite a few minor faults on these sig gens already.

The PSU module is definitely a weak area and I've repaired three PSUs now.

The components on the RF board are prone to failure because it runs so hot. I've seen SHF-0189 MMIC failures and failed electrolytic caps on the RF board for example.

The display backlight can fail and I converted one of my 3414 sig gens to LED backlighting with good results.

The little 12V standby PSU module can also become intermittent. These are potted inside so they are very difficult to work on if they fail.







G0HZU:
I recently looked through my old images of the insides of my IFR 3416 and I now think it is possible to mount the entire driver/RF/6GHz boards vertically together on the back of the control board.

There is a spare/unused connector poking out of the side of the chassis and I wondered why it was there. It is part of the driver board. Having looked at how there is a similar connector on the back of the control board, I think it is possible to rotate and remount the RF boards vertically on the control board in a kind of 'service' mode.

This will presumably allow access to the 6GHz board and the driver board with the sig gen still powered and running.

This will greatly help with faultfinding, especially with the 6GHz board.

Has anyone tried this? Is it listed in any service manuals as being possible?

G0HZU:
If anyone has access to any service docs can they also confirm if there is an additional 'engineering' interface that can be accessed? Looking through the firmware I think there is an engineering menu and also an FTP interface. I don't yet know how to activate these but maybe it is described (or at least hinted at) in some service docs?

However, in this case, there may already be diagnostic software available for the Aeroflex sig gens. This isn't the same as the DIAG commands listed in the programming section of the manual. I think there are other things that can be monitored and controlled via a different interface. I think the fan speed can be monitored and even controlled remotely for example.

I've done similar things with car ECUs where the manufacturer has hidden a diagnostic port that would have been used by their engineers. They remove all trace of the port hardware but left the code intact. So it was possible to reverse engineer the port requirements and reactivate the engineering port and then reverse engineer all the commands by looking through their code. This allowed real time monitoring of all the variables in the ECU as it was running as it permitted direct access to all the memory addresses in RAM.

G0HZU:
Here's an image showing a comparison between the repaired display (converted to LED backlight) and an IFR3414 with the original backlight.

When viewed with the naked eye, the original CFL display is slightly brighter, but that is because I have run the LEDs at a fairly low current. The datasheet suggests the LEDs will last up to about 100,000 hours at this current.

It's fairly easy to convert the display to the LED system once the original CFL tube fails. The main niggle is that the display is quite fiddly to remove as there are lots of screws holding the front panel together. The alternative is to buy a replacement display for approx. £100 to £130 from China or Japan.

The LED backlit display is the top display in the image below.

Mkpirulo:
Hi,

Looks good. Could you provide us the LED PN that you used. Also include a link to the China units.

Thanks,
Michael

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

There was an error while thanking
Thanking...
Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod