Author Topic: Agilent 34401a revisions  (Read 20408 times)

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Offline HighVoltage

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #75 on: April 28, 2023, 11:10:06 am »
Go to the Keysight Service Notes website:
https://support.keysight.com/s/service-notes?language=en_US

and type "34401A" into the search field and you will get all service notes for this instrument.

There are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who can count and those who can not.
 
The following users thanked this post: Miti, coromonadalix, Jacon

Offline Miti

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #76 on: April 28, 2023, 03:52:00 pm »
Go to the Keysight Service Notes website:
https://support.keysight.com/s/service-notes?language=en_US

and type "34401A" into the search field and you will get all service notes for this instrument.

Thanks, that works… on my laptop at work. Zero service notes on my phone. I’ll check from home tonight.  :scared:

Edit: It gets even more interesting. If I connect to internet using my LTE data, it doesn’t find any service notes. If I turn on the Wi-Fi and connect to the company internet, it finds all 14 service notes. Craaazy…
« Last Edit: April 28, 2023, 03:58:07 pm by Miti »
Fear does not stop death, it stops life.
 

Offline GigaJoe

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #77 on: April 29, 2023, 03:26:18 pm »
more likely you phone browser behavior, cutting some script.
 

Offline Peter_O

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #78 on: May 09, 2023, 11:48:53 am »
I've bought this one:
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005003371396426.html
for 34 Euros incl. tax and shipping and received it 2 weeks later via DHL in Germany well packed in a small cardboard parcel.
 

Online Hydron

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #79 on: May 09, 2023, 12:35:34 pm »
Mine (same seller) is out for delivery now... but Evri (aka Hermes, name change probably aimed at tricking people who've had bad Hermes experiences) is indicating that they're going to try and deliver to my work address (clearly a business) between 5 and 7pm, so it'll be closed and I'll need to wait a while longer before reporting back on my order  >:( :palm:

Edit: it showed up, was also well packed (important as the box had taken a beating) and looks to be in good new condition. Will report back once I've installed it, might be a few days until I have a chance though.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2023, 09:16:24 am by Hydron »
 

Online Hydron

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #80 on: May 10, 2023, 07:12:24 pm »
Found some time to put it in my meter, results were in line with Miti's (i.e. good brightness and evenly lit). Don't have a before photo unfortunately and not much point in an after one (will look like Miti's).

Examining my original VFD (Samsung) vs the Aliexpress clone shows some pretty close copying going on; the main differences I could see were some slight differences in the phosphor (Samsung was a bit whiter), and the grid infront of the anodes was a bit finer on the original (i.e. a bit higher quality).

Zero issues getting it installed - a good desoldering iron makes short work of it (the VFD was one of the easiest many-pin devices I've ever desoldered, due to it's long flexible pins and large hole clearances) and my original display should still work fine if I ever need it as a backup.
 

Offline coromonadalix

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #81 on: May 11, 2023, 05:21:21 pm »
check the other thread   early 34401a revision  lolll   number 42  loll
 

Offline hp3310a

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #82 on: January 18, 2025, 06:21:43 pm »
Old thread I know but it seems to me it's most appropriate here and people here don't like thread creep as far as I can tell...

On the topic: I'm obsessing with the idea of getting a 34401a and came across a unit that looks interesting. It has a "MY41...." serial number so I guess it's from the early 2000s and red/black plugs on the front but red-only plugs (no black) on the rear.

I looked at a lot of units on ebay and I found none that have a black/non-black plug combination. Has there been a time where the 34401a  was manufactured like that?
« Last Edit: January 18, 2025, 08:12:31 pm by hp3310a »
 

Offline coromonadalix

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #83 on: January 18, 2025, 06:33:31 pm »
get a 34410a instead ?   and update your avatar position,  would help a bit  :-+


on ebay.com     there are 34401a  with red black   

some from

china at 360USD  right now  2025 01 18  ??
japan at 400USD

even some start bid at 200USD ?
« Last Edit: January 18, 2025, 06:36:06 pm by coromonadalix »
 

Offline hp3310a

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #84 on: January 18, 2025, 07:51:09 pm »
Not sure what you're replying to, my question was this: Was there ever a version built that had red+black plugs on the front panel, and red-only plugs on the back?
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #85 on: January 18, 2025, 09:56:08 pm »
Not sure what you're replying to, my question was this: Was there ever a version built that had red+black plugs on the front panel, and red-only plugs on the back?

Very, very unlikely. These are well known for chimera builds, that is the likely explanation. Chances are it'll be near impossible to establish without the thing in your possession.
nuqDaq yuch Dapol?
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Online Hydron

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #86 on: January 18, 2025, 11:04:04 pm »
Malaysia unit means it'll have the newer display which is good, and if you're lucky it'll have FW v7 or later which means extra hidden features can be enabled.
 

Offline dimmog

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #87 on: January 18, 2025, 11:04:38 pm »
Old thread I know but it seems to me it's most appropriate here and people here don't like thread creep as far as I can tell...

On the topic: I'm obsessing with the idea of getting a 34401a and came across a unit that looks interesting. It has a "MY41...." serial number so I guess it's from the early 2000s and red/black plugs on the front but red-only plugs (no black) on the rear.

I looked at a lot of units on ebay and I found none that have a black/non-black plug combination. Has there been a time where the 34401a  was manufactured like that?

HP/Agilent has never produced the 34401A with different terminals on the front and rear. I refer to such units as "Frankenstein" because it's possible that the terminal block was replaced, or an older main board with replaced block was installed in a newer 'MY' chassis and so on.
 

Offline coromonadalix

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #88 on: January 19, 2025, 04:11:51 am »
yep  my bad      and yes   the red / black jacks   where orderable at some point

you would have an "Franken meter" as other wrote,     full red  or black /red meters  if doubts  you check the FW version, or unless some play dirt tricks ?

and yes the   MY xxxx units where black /red
 

Offline hp3310a

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #89 on: January 19, 2025, 05:29:43 pm »
OK, thanks that doesn't appear to be a good specimen then (the one I was looking at).
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #90 on: January 20, 2025, 10:26:15 am »
OK, thanks that doesn't appear to be a good specimen then (the one I was looking at).

Depends on the price and whether it passes self-test
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Offline coromonadalix

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #91 on: January 20, 2025, 10:57:00 am »
when possible and the seller accept it ...  ask for a selftest screen  and the FW version on the display  ...   

for the latest xx v11 xx    fw  keysight was selling the chip,  but the fw leaked on the web  and you buy a new ic, and program it ..
 

Offline hp3310a

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #92 on: January 20, 2025, 11:46:45 am »
The firmware revision of the unit in question is 06-04-01, the price over $460. According to the seller, this unit was combined by using an banged up old unit's board with one with a dead board but newer chassis. So the serial isn't the one from the board. I think I'll let someone take a chance on this one.
 

Offline coromonadalix

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #93 on: January 20, 2025, 11:57:20 am »
yep  and that price  pfffff  way too much


some are still trying to pull a profit .. they usually sit around 400$ usd or less

and nowadays     some 34410a  have gone out between 450$  560$      witch is a superior model, w more connectivity  ...  aka   34401a replacement w faster measurements,   34411a  witch is faster than 34410a    price(s) began to drop too

just the small fan in them who could be a nag, sometimes they hiss ...

34401a  was a reference    but other exists
 

Offline ps

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #94 on: January 20, 2025, 07:33:30 pm »
Did anyone dump the IO firmware, is it available on the net?
Update: KO4BB has it, http://w.ko4bb.com/getsimple/index.php?id=manuals&dir=HP_Agilent_Keysight/HP_34401A_6.5_Digit_Multimeter. Some server problems at the moment, but generally it is there.

According to Service Note 34401A-06, CPU firmware 06-xx-xx is the last one that supports the old VFD PCB xx-xx-01 and also the first one that supports the new xx-xx-02. CPU FW 06-xx-xx usually comes with IO FW xx-04-xx, but Service Note 34401A-08 indicates that this can be substituted with xx-05-xx without any issues. So 06-05-01 should be fine with the old display.

Did anybody try to combine CPU FW 07-xx-xx or later with a xx-xx-01 display?
« Last Edit: January 21, 2025, 06:38:56 pm by ps »
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Agilent 34401a revisions
« Reply #95 on: January 21, 2025, 06:09:44 pm »
Insane price, for what it is... a late Agilent version just sold for £240 + shipping on UK ebay...
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