Agilent 54831D modernising

[Tony_G]

It’s very early days!

On a usability note on anything on an EE bench that needs a keyboard and/or mouse, I very highly recommend an under-bench keyboard tray, leaving the bench itself clear.

You can buy them ready-made, but nowadays I make my own custom trays using drawer slider runners from the DIY store.

I've been ok with the slide-out touchpad for my 54845. For anything else with a USB port, I use an old Logitech K400 - Works great with Pi's and various iMX6 boards.

TonyG

[Howardlong]

FWIW, another one of the benefits of a slide out is that you can still easily operate the mouse under the desk with the tray closed, quite a common use case with these older Infiniiums where not all the features are available from the front panel.

I generally don't get on with touchpads very well unless it's a laptop use case, but I might try again given your recommendation.

[magore]

Windows 10 install on a Infiniium 54831b series scope with new Motherboard, CPU and new EJ080NA-04C LCD panel. Tested mostly on a P5B75-M with I5-3470T CPU. Also tested on PQ5M-VM DO with Core 2 Duo CPU
FYI - these steps will not work on Windows 7 - Windows 7 install needs the bridge driver installed and the \pcifilter directory tools post driver install - you have to fix each item in device manager under infiniium unlike just mesa.sys with Windows 10. otherwise these instructions work with Windows 7 also. .... Windows 10 is easier and will continue to be supported.

Background:
Thanks to Howardlong and others - they did all of the hard time consuming intial ground work proving it was posible to run Windows 7 on the scope by upgrading. This prompted me to explore a clean install Windows 10 solution. Because of his work I only had to focus on just what might be missing when he  tried that clean install soltion. I did a clean install first then examined differences in the registry specific to devices then software. I used Sysinternal tools to trace file and registry access for clues on the XP version running on the original configuration to debug the problem. I saved all of the HKLM section of the orginal XP registry for examination. Then I extracted the all of the keys containing Agilent infinnium, flexlm and the main scope drivers - that appeard in certain parts of the registry keys.- using a program I wrote. This helpped me find the missing bits.

Warnings
    • This project should only be attempted by someone with very good mechanical, computer, electronics skills. If you have any question or uncertainty about how to do ANY of the steps outlined below you should not even consider doing this project. ( Those with the required level of skills needed for this don’t need a fine level of hand holding explanation/concepts as they are already totally familiar to them. )
    • This will certainly void any warranties you have!
    • None of your existing software license options will work after you make these changes due to hostid changes!
    • This project requires serious mechanical modifications to your existing chassis.
        ◦ You will be cutting a hole in the back of your scope in the area where an IO shield insert would normally go – tolerance requirements are high for the new IO shield to fit and be aligned correctly. If you later decide put the VP22 motherboard back in the machine it will no longer have an IO shield for it.
        ◦ You will be replacing your Motherboard
        ◦ You will be replacing your LCD
        ◦ You will be extending the PCI bridge 80 cable with a new one
        ◦ You will be adding several new power connectors to your power supply. ( ATX 4 pin 12V for CPU, SATA 12V and 5V power connections 12V power for the LCD controller you will be adding SATA power connections. I did this by attaching it to the screw lugson the power supply.
    • Lastly but most important there are no warranties that this will work for you when you are done - I have only done limited testing. All I can say is that it has worked for me - so far
Prerequisites
    • You need a new Windows 10 Pro license - you can download the USB installer from Microsoft.
    • New LCD – I used an EJ080NA-04C, 1024 * 768 and controller combo
    • Used P8B75-M motherboard and a CPU – You should use a low power 35W TDP max CPU like the I5-3470T in order to not stress the scope power supply.
   
    • You will need a longer PCI extension cable for the P8B75-M board. Look for 82080-6006RB connectors on Digikey or if you are brave carefully take the existing connectors apart. I used the 80 cable from an old high quality 80pin shielded PATA IDE cable I had kicking around.
    • You will need two 4Pin ATX power cable extensions and a sata power cable from some source
   I replaced my CD with a DVD slim drive - you will need a "slim" sata power connector for the DVD






My first how to install Windows 10 is aimed at those who already have modified their systems with a new motherboard and are familiar with that part of the process. I am using a P8B75-M Asus motherboard but  I also used a P5DL-VM DO. I think any B75 series Intel chipset motherboard would be a good choice. FYI- Windows will install an older version of the Intel graphics drivers on these boards. You have to remove those and update the latest version from Intel - if you see igfxCUI Service 1.0.0.0 - that is part of the old driver set - its buggy - you want version 2 ( Microsoft Sysinternals autoruns.exe will help you find it ).

We will NOT be using the original video board pair in this upgrade so we only need two PCI slots.
I used a EJ080NA-04C LCD panel and driver board on my scope replacing the original LCD. I attached my new LCD to the original 8.4" bezel. The original bezel can be easily removed - it is just held by spring tension - a small flat blat screw driver will free it by springing the clips. I held the display in by using aluminum tape on the back side to hold it to the bezel. The bezel has the mounting screws to attach it to the scope. I made a black cardboard bezal to blaclout the extra margins visible from the frontside. I used 40pin 0.5mm extenders from Adafruit avaiable from Digikey also. I got longer 40pin 0.5m flex cables from digikey.


You will need the following files
1) adobe.sys, mesa.sys, zeum.sys ( from C:\Windows\system32\drivers folder
2) adobe.inf, mesa.inf, zeum.inf (from scope recovery partition C:\Windows\inf folder )
  Note: I have atached them to this post along with the changes - I only document the process in case someone wants to do it from scratch.
The original .inf files are one the scope recovery partition contained in the file RECOVERY.GHO
You can access the files by using Gost Explorer V11. images.
Ghost Explorer V11 is availabe on the Symantec FTP server:
      ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/symantec_ghost_solution_suite/2.5/updates/Ghostexp-B1597.zip

Here are the checksums and dates for the drivers - the versions I had on my 54831b scope:

                MD5                             SHA-1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
12b7f231d02e4eb3a8c97281e991056e 66a921f9bbd2ed71032dc2a63730a02b97edf4d4 adobe.sys
4d2ba2387b448927d03b47351cfb5a63 5e9c7a0b7a458e8386c48136a7b6e4a7cdcfc339 Mesa.sys
f326ae60d4bd05b92848e18296ac141c e9de23ce5c7ec82eda538c756ef5a73ad70f98fa zeum.sys
File sizes and dates
2008-05-19  09:00 PM            29,184 adobe.sys
2005-08-02  11:02 PM            78,860 Mesa.sys
2008-05-19  09:00 PM            28,160 zeum.sys

To verify the hashes Microsoft has a tool you can download.
Microsoft Hash Checker
      https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=11533

Once you have the adobe.inf, mesa.inf, zeum.inf files you need to make a small change
find the section in each file called [SourceDisksNames.x86] modify the line below it as follows
[SourceDisksNames.x86]
;1 = %DiskId1%,,,""
1 = ,,,""

Use a USB key and place these six files on it along with mesa.reg and flexlm.reg from this posting

Get a copy of 2019 version of the IO Libraries Suite
Search for  "IO Libraries Suite Downloads" on Google - currently the pages is liked to
https://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?id=2175637
Currently: Currentlu  2019 called IOLibSuite_18_1_24715.exe

Get a copy of the "Infiniium 8000 Series, 80000 Series, 5485x Series, and 5483x Series Oscilloscope Software" V571 and the latest manual V550
Currently: V571 called SetupInfiniium05710000.exe
and SetupInfManuals05500001.exe

I also got a copy of the IVI drivers
Currently: v1.6.4 called AgilentInfiniium-x86_1.6.4.0.msi

Place these four installers on the USB key
Copy your existing C:\scope directory to the USB Key for settings and calibration data

Install Windows 10
1) Clean install Windows 10 Pro - and install any motherboard specific driver ( but no infiniium drivers yet )
    - I used a new 120G SSD drive (SSD is strongly recommended - about $30 USD)
2) You can name the user whatever you want the scope software does not care (by default the user you create is an Administrator anyway)
3) Activate and update 
4) Change update setting to include other Microsoft software
5) Disable power saving sleep modes - I used advanced settings and disable all PCI and other device sleep settings.
6) Enable Remote  Desktop
7) Only update Motherboard drivers ( not Infiniium Drivers yet )

Installing Drivers:
1) Attache the USB key to the scope and copy the contents to a new folder, ie c:\drivers you will do any installs from c:\drivers - move the c:\scope folder to c:\scope.
2) Install IO Libraries Suite - Right click and install IOLibSuite_18_1_24715.exe as Administrator
3) Install IVI drivers - Double click and install AgilentInfiniium-x86_1.6.4.0.msi
4) Reboot - if you check device manager you will notice the GPIB board has a good device entry now

5) Right Click on mesa.reg and pick Merge, repeat for flexlm.reg
6) Right click on c:\drivers\mesa.inf and pick install - click through any warnings, repeat for adobe.inf and zeum.inf
7) Reboot
Open Device manager and Navigate to Infiniium ( This is a class created by mesa.reg that holds the mesa,adobe and zeum drivers)
9) You will notice that Infiniium Main Interface has an error
    - Right click and pick Update Driver
    - Browse my computer for driver software
    - Let Me pick from a list
    - Have Disk -> Browse C:\drivers -> mesa.inf -> Open - OK -> Next -> Close -> Yes Reboot!

10) Check that all of the Infiniium devices exist without error - Acquisition,Main and four Memory
11) Continue to software install

Installing Scope software:
1) Modify folder view settings to list extensions and not to hide any files except Merge conflicts - apply to all folders
2) Open your users AppData\Local\Temp folder - delete all of the files you can - you may have few busy log files - that is okay leave them
3) Right click on the SetupInfiniium05710000.exe installer and run as Administrator
   Once it gets to the Matlab 7.5 drivers it will fail saying it can not write the log file - do NOT click on the OK or close the dialog box yet! Look for the file "MATLAB Component Runtime 7.50.msi" under your AppData\Local\Temp older - searching for .msi helps. Save this file into your C:\drivers folder. You can now dismiss the error dialog box and close the failed SetupInfiniium05710000.exe setup.
4) Double click on "MATLAB Component Runtime 7.50.msi" and install - it should install just fine.
5) Right click SetupInfiniium05710000.exe installer and run as Administrator - it will now continue to install. Install the manual SetupInfManuals05500001.exe next.
6) REMOVE the Starup link for the AgScope.exe in user startup folder. I used the Microsoft SysInternals Suite program called Autoruns to do this. - Why? You do not want the scape to try to launch agscope when it reboots until everything is working.
7) Remove both VNC entries Using Control panel Add Remove programs - you will not use them with windows 10.
Disable the Windows firewall on your local network
9) Reboot

Updating
1) Run Windows update and let it update everything - there were several .Net and runtime compenents the scope uses - they need to be updated. Make sure you enable the Update Other Microsoft Software Settings in Windows Update - if not turn it one and update again
2) Reboot


Testing
1) Startup the system and log in - wait a while for any background windows post update services to finish - click on the task bar ^ Symbol - you want to see the (IO) icon for the IO drivers before continuing
2) Change your display resolution to 1024*768 and start the Infiniium agScope software - it may take a while the first time
3) Will will note you that you have no licenses - this is expected
4) You should be able to run various tests now.
5) If you run the agScope application on a screen with greater then 1024*768 settings it may hang in certain situations - this is due to a heap overflow. Windows will note this fact in the registry when it happens.
6) When using remote desktop always use 1024*768 screen mode by accessing the advanced options prior to connecting

[magore]

Attached are some photos of the new display install
The first picture shows the original display removed from its bezel - the new display is held in with aluminum tape - great tape it never lets go. The 40pin cable extenders are availabe from digikey.

[magore]

Faceplate removed and probe cover removed

[magore]

USB tray - I got a floppy usb add on - removed the board and made a holder on my CNC. The board was 88mm wide and 10.5 tall - so the works in the 96mm by 12.5mm hole.
This is how the video connection works. The motherboard hdmi out connects to an hdmi connection on the i/o shield area - that in turn connects to the display driver board inside the scope. I used a db9 io shield with the holes widened to take a chassis mont hdmi extention cable.
FYI - I added extra IO slots when I cut out the motheboard IO shield.

My cat lucky on the desktop - of course

[SilverSolder]

Totally cool project @magore! 

Did you happen to notice if the scope application is able to do anything "special" - e.g. is it a COM server or does it have DDE capability or anything like that, which could be made use of?

Can it write and/or log output to files on the local drive etc.?

[Tony_G]

Did you up the resolution as well?

TonyG

[Howardlong]

Pretty sure the LCD is a 1024x768 one, so yes to the resolution increase.

Very cool! A very neat cutout for the IO shield too - I am not skilled enough to achieve such a feat without it looking like a dog’s dinner.

One option I had a go with was to use a mini ITX mobo and use short extension patch leads to avoid the cutout but there’s not much space for the cables.

From memory and looking at my Amazon orders I think I went up as far as a G4500T. The scope app is single threaded, pegging a single core at 100% permanently, so there’s little point in any more than two cores, one for the app and one for everything else.

[magore]

The scope application did not change - it has all of the original features. You can save results exactly as before. The screen is 1024 x 768 but only 8" vs the original 8.4".
You can see the display part number in the photos. The display and controller were about $40

[magore]

Look at Howardlongs' detailed attempts with various mother boards in this thread -  it is quite extensive. I would strongly suggest reading this whole thread before anyone tried this.  When I cut out my IO shield I first drilled out the rivets holding it to the base plate and used screws to hold it back together when I finished. This allowed me to cut the IO shield much easier. I taped the area on both sides marked the hole, drilled starter holes, used a strong nibbler tool and filed the result smooth. Same with the IO card holes. FYI, the embossed impression surrounding  the original IO should is the correct location and  just about exactly the correct size for the cutout. This makes sense as the vp22 was also a standard board. The IO shield deminsions are all industry standard. . It is interesting that they had all of the screw holes for all the IO slots but not all the slots - very odd.

[Howardlong]

Doh!

About four months ago, I had the lid of my 54831D scope to try to fix a problem where it keeps returning to factory defaults at boot, something I never figured out why [e.g., the coin cell is fine]. Anyway, a few days later I turned it on and it rebooted a minute or so into the startup of the Scope app (5.71).

So I did a bunch of card re-seating, and did some limited tests on the power supply, assuming it was on its way out. Anyway, I couldn't find anything wrong, so assumed it was a dodgy cap or power supply on the acquisition board.

As I was moving a few days later, I put it onto the back burner.

This morning, I was searching through my storage for something, and randomly came across the Bridge Cable (W22) between the Display and Graphics boards.

It turns out I'd failed to replace it all those weeks ago when putting it back together again, and it now works perfectly - except for the original factory default problem.

So if your unit is showing this fault where it reboots at Scope app startup, check you've replaced the W22 bridge cable.

[Gandalf_Sr]

How does the Agilent 54831M compare to the 54831D?  Does it have the same analog board? What about the MSO functionality? Can it be upgraded as per all the instructions here?

Thanks in advance.

[Howardlong]

How does the Agilent 54831M compare to the 54831D?  Does it have the same analog board? What about the MSO functionality? Can it be upgraded as per all the instructions here?

Thanks in advance.

I don’t know what’s involved in modifying a 54831M/B to a 54831D: there are physical constraints such as the external trigger location moving to the back, and a digital cable receptacle in its place. Possibly there are some additional front panel buttons too. I don’t know what the resistor settings would be, or if the acquisition board needs additional chips.

The external cable assembly itself isn’t that easy to find, but I’d imagine they turn up on eBay occasionally. The one I have came with the scope, together with a full set of original lightweight 1165A analogue passive probes, that’s some value in itself: the 1165A have become a firm favourite of mine as a result.

[Jwalling]

How does the Agilent 54831M compare to the 54831D?  Does it have the same analog board? What about the MSO functionality? Can it be upgraded as per all the instructions here?

Thanks in advance.

I don’t know what’s involved in modifying a 54831M/B to a 54831D: there are physical constraints such as the external trigger location moving to the back, and a digital cable receptacle in its place. Possibly there are some additional front panel buttons too. I don’t know what the resistor settings would be, or if the acquisition board needs additional chips.

The external cable assembly itself isn’t that easy to find, but I’d imagine they turn up on eBay occasionally. The one I have came with the scope, together with a full set of original lightweight 1165A analogue passive probes, that’s some value in itself: the 1165A have become a firm favourite of mine as a result.

Not feasible. A number of chips including a custom BGA, 2 logic comparators, lots of discretes, plus the front panel as you mention.

[Gandalf_Sr]

So there's a possible parts unit 54831B  that I may be able to get that has the PSU but no processor on the MoBo.  I've included a picture of the analogue PCB.

Perhaps this could have a new:
MoBo + CPU
Windows 10
SSD (the HDD is missing, are there images available?)
No FDD?

Any thoughts?

[d123j]

Just tried the upgrade procedure on my 54831M and it worked fine. All, except for one little piece, the calibration procedure fails. It is passing fine with the original HW/FW. Thus question, it is just me or it is expected?

[Venturi962]

I observed this behavior as well when I did this work on a 54831B.  Perhaps the routines are different across models and some inconsistencies cause the calibration to fail.

[d123j]

To answer my own question, the below helped:
1. Throttled down CPU to stay withing 30W board power budget
2. Run agscope as admin

[thehsm]

Hello all,
I am new to this forum and came across this interesting post about modernizing the Agilent 54831D. It brought a lot of memories because I did the same think on my 54832D back in 2008. Back then the options regarding motherboards was limited so I went with a special FoxConn designed for POS equipment. I used the fastest Pentium D running at a amazing 3.4GHz and 2 GB of RAM. I later switched to an 256GB SSD, but only formatted to half capacity in order to extend its life. Also before I cut the IO Panel hole, I bought an extra metal piece from Agilent. Back then it was still supported and you could buy spare parts. So after 13 years I am thinking of doing another upgrade like some of you have done. One thing I tried back then, was to add a touch screen to the display. I tried multiple devices, but being resistive touch and not the best UI for touchscreen it was not worth the trouble. My question is, how is the display update rate when the CHIP & TECH display board is removed and the motherboard video is used? I guess it operates like the MSO8104. It appears that changing the LCD would be an easy start. Thanks for your feedback.

[Berni]

Actually resistive touch is what you want for a non touch optimised UI.

I have a MSO9000 that comes with a resistive touch screen and runs Windows 7. Due to its large screen you can use your finger nail to hit even the smallest of windowses non touch optimized buttons. This is much harder on new capacitive touch panels. Tho because the soft surface of resistive touch panels is easily damaged i have a screen protector film on it (also fixes the shiny glare issue). On the small screen here you might find a stylus useful too.

Capacitive touch might be a good idea when running Windows 10 where the UI is designed to take better advantage of it as long as its detected as a proper multitouch panel. But pretty sure you won't be running that on this oldtimer.

Touch is nice on a scope so that you can quickly prod and poke at a button, especially since modern infiniium scopes only let you do the most basic of things using the front panel buttons, so some form of mouse input is pretty much required. But when you have to set up a lot of fancy measurements and settings its still better to keep a mouse near by (your arm gets tired from poking things in mid air across the whole bench).

[thehsm]

Hello Berni,

I have a Tek DPO7104 with a Resistive Touch Screen and it works there because of the large screen, on the 54832D even with the stylus, it was not useful to me when I did the tests. I use a mini keyboard with a touchpad and that works great.

So my original question is, if I remove the C&T video card, will the scope switch to the motherboard Video and display the waveforms there?

[d123j]

It was actually answered earlier in this topic, at least for the latest version of the software(5.71), the scope will switch to the motherboard video. The resolution will be 1024x768 up from the original 640x480.

[d123j]

Above in this topic magore fitted an 8 inch LCD panel, HJ080IA-01E, to 54831. I went that way and bough one from Aliexpress for around $40.
It comes together with a controller, I had IC marking on mine sanded away, but it certainly looked like a generic RTD2660 controller.
The obvious drawback of that approach is that some of the display area, around 10%, is lost, 
It turned out there is an 8.4 inch LCD panel, the same size as the original, with the resolution of 1024x768. It is an AA084XA03 also from Mitsubishi.
I decided to give it a try.
Unlike the original display panel, which is parallel, the AA084XA03 is LVDS one. From what I can tell AA084XA03 can fit nicely instead of the original one.
Two of the four mounting holes even match those from the original. Well, now the question is what to hook it to.
Since I already had a controller form HJ080IA-01E that was an obvious choice as both panels are LVDS and of the same resolution.
The main problem was how to hook it as the connector on the AA084XA03 is not only rather unique but also is difficult to work with.
After  going through all the pain I can conclude that AA084XA03 does indeed work with a controller from HJ080IA-01E.
What is left now is just to make it all fit nicely inside the case.

[SilverSolder]

Maybe there is a graphics card and driver that can drive a LVDS display directly?

Or is Agilent bypassing Windows for the display?