| Products > Test Equipment |
| Fool for the 8656A Sig Gen |
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| jrharley:
Thanks for weighing in ekoloski! I got a notification a few days back that showed you had commented, but I couldn't see the post for some reason, didn't seem to show up. Anyway, appreciate the comments and encouragement. While documenting and packing up the original unit for storage, it did occur to me how close the guy was to being up and running its own self! I'm confident it could still serve. Meanwhile, it'll be a good back-up for reference if nothing else. As for the forks, there's some pretty good pics of one right at the upper part of this page, reply #151 I think. Browse to either side of that for additional pics on the attenuator and parts. I'm not a 3-D printing ace either, but the more I examined the forks, the less confident I became that they could be successfully printed. Thanks Tony_G, appreciate the thoughts and the offer! I never forget! :) I'm going to take a brief side-track before getting into the maintenance tests on the HP though. I've got that A-300 tube amp to move to the next level. But for what it's worth, several spot checks on the output through my digital scope, showed the 8656A to be bang on with the frequency. I was able to calibrate up the little BK Precision Spectrum Analyzer, no problems. It involved switching back and forth between precise db levels. The HP is awesome for something like that. What a pleasure to use. It feels like my HP 15C calculator, which I still use daily! Final cosmetic step pic attached. Later JRH |
| Tony_G:
Looks nice, well done |
| Tony_G:
I was taking a look at the performance tests and you're probably going to be a bit SOL on a lot of the tests seeing that you don't have the test gear. That said, you should be able to do an OK job on the frequency and power output with that BK SA - I've never used one of those but you should be able to do the harmonics with it as well. Not sure how it will go when you start getting down to low-level signals. The modulation stuff needs some form of modulation analyzer (the manual calls for an 8901A but if you have access to an 8902A then that unit is basically an 8901B with more features, mechanically very similar and I used one to fix up an 8902A I have) - A few tests call for a 11715A AM/FM source and these things are rare and costly to acquire (going for ~$4K on auction sites). I wouldn't bother with those tests. I think you'll mostly be fine with power & frequency accuracy, the only thing you might need is a true frequency counter to get the 10MHz reference tuned correctly but you can actually work around that by using something like what Alan does here: Look forward to seeing how you go. TonyG |
| jrharley:
Awesome Tony_G! Very interesting stuff. A brief glance at the test procedures in the manual, did make my eyes roll back up into my head, but I haven't really had the time to focus on it yet. Thanks for the preview! I've got to take a break from my passion for a few days to travel up to Georgia to help my Mom. Family stuff. Should be good to clear the mind. Anyway, I've got a decent counter on the bench, but the video really has piqued my interest, so we'll see how she goes when I get back. I'm not going to be a metrology Nazi on the HP, it seems to be working great for my needs, but I do want to get it as ship shape as possible. I'll post up with anything of potential interest. Have a great Easter break all...... Later, JRH |
| Tony_G:
Hope you had a good break and things with the family were good too. If you look at the stats on the SigGen it really is only +/- 1dBm or so which might be within the specs of your SA. Modulation is really the only thing that you can't specifically measure but you can work around that to get an idea of the output by modulating a signal and then either analyzing the audio output (which is basically what the 8901 does when it demodulates) with a PC audio card - This won't be accurate but really for non-lab work it is close enough. Look forward to hearing from you with pic's of the cleaned up working unit :) TonyG |
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