Enabling options on Agilent ESA series E4402B E4404B E4405B E4407B

[xymox]

Yea I have been thru the "calibration" guide.. Hehehe..  Im still not sure how to set Course and Fine in the timebase in the service menu..

I do have something off on both my units. If I give them my rubidihum clock std 10Mhz it displays slightly off center if I set the SA for 1hz res bw and 100 hz span. Also the freq counter is off a bit..

Amplitute is reading slightly off at various frequency points.

These are not much off, but with this many years on these devices, its normal to have drift.

Also if we want to swap boards around between units and maintain these over the next 10 years we just gotta be able to calibrate them.

These calibration adjustments must also be kept in some flash. If the flash goes or gets wiped, thats it. No hope of recovery.

We gotta be able to do TME.. I can't find old versions of TME. Or maybe some old different program used to calibrate.

I have sent a nice email to Ron Nersesian. He has a awesome career that goes way back with HP. Back to the good old days of HP. I have suggested that hobbyists fuel young engineers and so thier future customers could well be buying this older gear from ebay. i suggested its helpful for EoL devices that are locked away with keys to maybe get a free online key gen process. This would fuel many hobbyists into engineers and maybe future customers. It wont hurt Keysight sales as hobbyists cannot afford to buy new gear and companies using this kind of test equipment don't buy old gear like this.

Im sure I wont get a response. BUT the email did not reflect back. So I did find the right email to use for him.

WTH... Why not try...

BTW the self calibration license has provisions for a single serial number instrument. That would have to be way cheaper then a single seat.

Maybe I can get a trial license. If so, I can capture all the GPIB..AND calibrate my unit at least once..

[xymox]

OooOOo... TMA has a help file for the ESA series.. It has a lot of interesting things in it..


It *SEEMS* like you could set the freq limit and pick the model when you replace the processor board.. I believe there are hardware differences tho between models, so, its not JUST a setting. BUT its interesting tho.. Plus there are a lot of things in here that are interesting.. The part about processor initialization is interesting. http://www.xymox1.com/Misc/Utilities.pdf

All the adjustments you can do.. http://www.xymox1.com/Misc/Adjustments.pdf

I am still unsure if you can manually enter any values. It may be the TSE software forces hooking up automated bench gear and standards and then operates all that via GPIB and does the calibration fully automated.. This would not be useful. It would be better, for hobbyist use, that we could enter values manually.

[xymox]

THIS is the software I want... I think... Its old too so maybe hackable.. This can do spectrograms with full width spans..

BUT its OLD... Runs on Windows 2000.. But thats fine I have a laptop of that vintage AND there is always VM..

https://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1000004487%3Aepsg%3Apro/esa-and-psa-option-230-benchlink-web-remote-control-software?pm=PL&nid=-32406.536880458&cc=US&lc=eng

[smgvbest]

THIS is the software I want... I think... Its old too so maybe hackable.. This can do spectrograms with full width spans..

BUT its OLD... Runs on Windows 2000.. But thats fine I have a laptop of that vintage AND there is always VM..

https://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1000004487%3Aepsg%3Apro/esa-and-psa-option-230-benchlink-web-remote-control-software?pm=PL&nid=-32406.536880458&cc=US&lc=eng

Far as I understand this one just need Option 230 enabled on the SA.   you can do that.

[smgvbest]

TME is Keysights premier package used to calibrate instruments and sold to calibration shops all over the world
I can see in any way Keysight is going to give that up to hobbyist.  Hobbyist are not any major part of their sales revenue.
I would love it but I'll put my money on no reply or a negative reply

[apples]

Just want to thank the people on this thread for their wonderful effort.

I have 3 x ESA 4402Bs that now have RF Pre-Amp which is what I needed.   One of them though is showing two distinct spikes (actually holes I suppose) in the response at 997.5MHz and 1.32GHz and when you turn the RF Pre Amp, the others don't do this.   Outside these gaps, the pre-amp is working fine.

Anyone know what could cause this?  Loose connectors ??
 

[smgvbest]

What’s the serial number on the unit?
The preamp hardware is only installed after a certain serial number
Maybe you don’t have the actual hardware

Just guessing but might be worth a check

[analogRF]

Just want to thank the people on this thread for their wonderful effort.

I have 3 x ESA 4402Bs that now have RF Pre-Amp which is what I needed.   One of them though is showing two distinct spikes (actually holes I suppose) in the response at 997.5MHz and 1.32GHz and when you turn the RF Pre Amp, the others don't do this.   Outside these gaps, the pre-amp is working fine.

Anyone know what could cause this?  Loose connectors ??
 

first of all to figure out if your preamps are working, a simple test is to set your Ref Lvl to something small like -40dBm (no signal needs to be connected) and then turn on/off the preamp. your noise floor must jump up and down by about 15-20db depending on the gain of the preamp

i am not sure if those spikes are created by the preamp. maybe as Sandra said you dont actually have the hardware for it and it is creating garbage
otherwise the preamp is self oscillating! 

[analogRF]

this thread has been going off rail for quite some time. it must have been pretty much closed after the final solution. things that came after that, though interesting and useful, should have been in threads of their own.

[apples]

@analogRF -fair point.

I considered it was somewhat relevant as others are sure to use the method for this and what I'm seeing might just be a limitation of just turning the 1DS option on without having the correct re-calibration software.

For completeness, I can confirm that in my case at least the preamp IS installed and IS working as expected apart from these 'spikes'.  I'll carry on the conversation as necessary on a new thread.

[tv84]

this thread has been going off rail for quite some time. it must have been pretty much closed after the final solution. things that came after that, though interesting and useful, should have been in threads of their own.

I think we are now seeing the consequences of enabling options on Agilent ESA series so not much of a derailing here, IMHO. Of course, some themes may deserve a thread on their own.

[analogRF]

let me pose a fresh and more useful and interesting challenge with regard to these analyzers:

how can we convert E4404B (6.7GHz) to E4405B (13.2GHz) if at all?

All boards and modules including the critical ones (attenuator and RYTHM) are common between these two
so the frequency must be limited by software only

of course calibration after such upgrade is a must and can pose a problem since the cal procedure is not possible by hobbyist

but still it would be awesome 

[smgvbest]

Service menu allow change of model and frequency range.
SERVICE/-2010/SERVICE

Other way is to program EEPROM on back of Processor card

Last if you have TME and ESA Module can do it there

[analogRF]

Service menu allow change of model and frequency range.
SERVICE/-2010/SERVICE

Other way is to program EEPROM on back of Processor card

Last if you have TME and ESA Module can do it there

What's the catch then? Could it be just the calibration thing? if it can be converted so easily then why did Agilent even sell E4404B? or why did anybody buy E4405B? Their original prices were hugely different...

[smgvbest]

Service menu allow change of model and frequency range.
SERVICE/-2010/SERVICE

Other way is to program EEPROM on back of Processor card

Last if you have TME and ESA Module can do it there

What's the catch then? Could it be just the calibration thing? if it can be converted so easily then why did Agilent even sell E4404B? or why did anybody buy E4405B? Their original prices were hugely different...

IDK,   I've used it to change mine to the EMC model (same firmware),   the service menu with the right password looks to even permit you to change the serial number.  the -2010 does not permit then though.  the Serial Number and Save Serial Number are greyed out so there's additional service passwords.

[mankan]

This can also be used in the old E44xxB ESG Signal Generators.

Just checked.

Really with the same vendor name and seeds? I cannot get it to work with a lmcrypt.exe that works for ESA. I've also tried HOST_ID variations like the VSA but with ESG and ESG-D instead. None of them produce a working code (i.e. a code for an option I already have installed).

[analogRF]

Service menu allow change of model and frequency range.
SERVICE/-2010/SERVICE

Other way is to program EEPROM on back of Processor card

Last if you have TME and ESA Module can do it there

maybe it is only possible to downgrade or convert to equivalent EMC model from ESA and vice versa.

someone with E4404B should try this

[PA0PBZ]

This can also be used in the old E44xxB ESG Signal Generators.

Just checked.

Really with the same vendor name and seeds? I cannot get it to work with a lmcrypt.exe that works for ESA. I've also tried HOST_ID variations like the VSA but with ESG and ESG-D instead. None of them produce a working code (i.e. a code for an option I already have installed).

The ESG uses the following format:

FEATURE ABC TMOMID01 1.0 permanent uncounted 0123456789AB VENDOR_STRING=0 HOSTID=12345678

[mankan]

I've got my E4407B today 
Juggled floppies and upgraded it to latest FW and Power Suite.

Also generated codes for possible options for my HW config and successfully installed installed 1D6 Time gating.

Now I'm having a hard time downloading and extracting the additional options. I either fail to extract the file due to corruption or errors that implies I need a real floppy and not a USB one.

Anyone that could share the following options SW in a better way than Keysight:
225 Cable fault
226 Phase noise
227 Cable TV
BAH GSM/GPRS
J36 FM deviation (I assume J35 is included in J36)

TIA

Edits: Realized 225 and BAH requires HW options that I currently do not have.

[smgvbest]

I had to use a real floppy for some reason

[mankan]

Good to know, unfortunately I do not have a computer with a real floppy available without hours of Frankensteinian work.

Besides that it's only option 225 (which I do not have HW for) that gets downloaded properly. All the others are really small files (16-32kB) and corrupt so even with a computer with a proper floppy I cannot advance further. That is why I am doing this request.

[PA0PBZ]

The download indeed turns up a bit of a fight, I was not able to download 226, tried 4 different browsers. However 227 worked, and also J36 which offered me 2 different files, please see the attachment.

[mankan]

Many thanks PA0PBZ, now have a updated option 227 to A.02.08 and latest version of J25/J36 B01.02. A friend reminded me that I have a oscilloscope running Windows 98. HP54820A FTW 

I tried 2 browsers myself, Firefox and Chrome on Windows 7. How did you succeed?

So now I'm just lacking the 226 Phase noise.

Regarding J35/J36: I could install both, but I ended up keeping the J35/J36 B.01.02 version since its newer and it seems option J36 is included in J35 newer versions which requires extra memory A72. My unit reports personality J35 as installed but reports no name for its J35 license. However J36 license is still installed and reports FM deviation.

[PA0PBZ]

I tried 2 browsers myself, Firefox and Chrome on Windows 7. How did you succeed?

Chrome on Windows 10 downloaded the 2 J36 files without a problem and 227 on the second try, 226 failed on Chrome, Edge, Firefox and IE.

[mankan]

Found the file URL with Edge: https://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/226_B0131.exe . But all my wget tricks ends up with " Connection closed at byte 32272"