Author Topic: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it  (Read 4066 times)

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Offline MrSadmanTopic starter

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Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« on: October 01, 2013, 07:56:50 am »
Well I got an Agilent 34401A fo free. Condition:  :-BROKE  So, I am going to see, if I can figure out what's wrong with it and maybe even fix it.
I haven't really had the time to start any serious debugging yet, but maybe someone here has more experience with fixing DMM-s then me.

The problem description sofar:
"The multimeter doesn't measure voltages under 10V and also might have problems with measuring resistance, current measuring works fine" - I have not had the chance to verify any of this yet.
Self test returns errors:

612 - Ohms 500 nA source failed. This test configures to the 10 V dc range
with the internal 10 M 100:1 divider U102A connected across the input.
The 500 nA ohms current source is connected to produce a nominal 5 V
signal. A 20 ms ADC measurement is performed and the result is
checked against a limit of 5 V ± 1 V.

613 - Ohms 5 uA source failed. This test configures to the 10 V dc range
with the internal 10 M 100:1 divider U102A connected across the input.
The 5 ?A ohms current source is connected. The compliance limit of the
current source is measured. A 20 ms ADC measurement is performed
and the result is checked against a limit of 7.5 V ± 3 V.

I think my first move is to go over the troubleshooting hints in the service manual and see if that brings anything up.

Feel free to give me any hints or ideas  :)
 

Online nctnico

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2013, 01:57:36 pm »
Feed the model number and error codes to Google and see what comes up. Chances are its a common problem.
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Offline free_electron

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2013, 03:00:35 pm »
There is two possibilities for this problem.

Offt he top off my head, i don't have the schematic handy
-the precision hybrid is damaged. That is not repairable. The hybrid costs 400$...
- the pathway around the hybrid is damaged. There are some external components.

I will look it up in a moment. I've seen those problems before.
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Any comments, or points of view expressed, are my own and not endorsed , induced or compensated by my employer(s).
 

Offline echen1024

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2013, 04:58:32 pm »
Where did you get this meter?
I'm not saying we should kill all stupid people. I'm just saying that we should remove all product safety labels and let natural selection do its work.

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Offline MrSadmanTopic starter

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2013, 06:36:01 pm »
Feed the model number and error codes to Google and see what comes up. Chances are its a common problem.
I have spent some time trying to Google this issue, but so far I haven't found anything regarding these error codes. Although I have to say, my Googling skills have been quite poor these past two weeks. Took me about 30 minutes to find someone selling stackable banana-banana patch cables.

There is two possibilities for this problem.

Offt he top off my head, i don't have the schematic handy
-the precision hybrid is damaged. That is not repairable. The hybrid costs 400$...
- the pathway around the hybrid is damaged. There are some external components.

I will look it up in a moment. I've seen those problems before.
Any input is a lot of help, thank you. At the moment it seems though, that I wont have a chance to take a look inside the device till the weekend  >:(

Where did you get this meter?
I got the meter from my workplace. It has probably about 7-8 years of working hours on it.
 

Offline MrSadmanTopic starter

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2013, 07:55:28 am »
Having a first look inside today :-/O
In the mean time, here's a gut shot.



 

Offline free_electron

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2013, 09:14:17 am »
The hybris is the big grey ceramic chip with the white sticker on it.
Check the 9 megaohm path first. I've seen those open...
The schematic tells you where it is
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Offline MrSadmanTopic starter

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Re: Got myself an Agilent 34401A, with a label "not working" on it
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2013, 10:44:09 am »
Think you might be right. While there are no shorts or open contacts a lot of the resistances are more then 10% off and some are over 100% off, some are smaller and some are larger. The resistances that are way off are from the DC Amp and Ohms schematic so the self test errors seem to be linked.
 


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