How much should I pay for a Agilent 1683AD Logic Analyzer ?

[electronic_guy]

Hi,

I’m planning to buy a logic analyzer. Seems like Agilent 1683AD is a good choice. How much one should pay for it on surplus market ? Specially on ebay.

What are your ideas on this instrument if you have used it ?

Thanks

[acstd90]

Have used them and they work great depending on what you are doing.
I would look at paying about $600 to $800. depending on who is selling and the condidtion.
Depending on the requirement for speed and how much you have to spend There is the Tektronix TLA series and the Philips Fluke 3585 series of logic analyzers.

[gslick]

Have used them and they work great depending on what you are doing.
I would look at paying about $600 to $800. depending on who is selling and the condidtion.

If you really want a tradition old school Agilent type logic analyzer that is self contained and reasonably portable, for $600 to $800, a 168xxA series would be significantly better than a 1683AD. The only advantage of the 168xAD series is that they are slightly smaller than the 168xxA series. They are inferior in every other measure.

(I have both 168xAD and 168xxA series logic analyzers myself, among others).

[RAQU_PL]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364715527102

There is one on ebay, today auction ends.

I've bought  16822a for ~300$ in not working condition.  1k$ for unit in working condition is (depending on included accessories) is ok price.

For 168xAD series  600$ for unit in good condition, with accesories included is IMO upper limit.

At least for EU market, in US should be cheaper.

[tggzzz]

I’m planning to buy a logic analyzer. Seems like Agilent 1683AD is a good choice.

I'm satisfied with my 1682AD. I got it from a local auction house, from a company that was vacating premises.

How much one should pay for it on surplus market ? Specially on ebay.

How long are you prepared to wait?

Make sure anything you buy, works, has the cables, has a suitable means of connecting to your UUT. The grippers are available, but aren't cheap as I would like. Personally I slightly prefer the Tek grippers.

[nctnico]

I'd look at a Tektronix TLA700 series logic analyser with a TLA7AA4 module. Way more memory, timestamped recording with full memory depth and faster sampling.

[gslick]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/364715527102

There is one on ebay, today auction ends.

I've bought  16822a for ~300$ in not working condition.  1k$ for unit in working condition is (depending on included accessories) is ok price.

That Agilent 16901A sold for $317.96, plus shipping. Looks like it had a 16911A and a 16950A for logic analyzer modules. If everything was fully functional, that was probably a decent deal.  Listed "AS IS", but also "New – Open box".  If it wasn't fully functional I don't know which of those two descriptions wins. The item listing photos don't show anything on the LCD, so that might be a bit of an unknown problem. If anyone here happened to buy it I would be curious to know what the issue there turned out to be.

Back in the ~$600 range, there is currently this Agilent 16806A (basically the same thing as a 16901A with two 16910A modules installed). Maybe someone could get a decent Best Offer deal. Significantly better in all respects than a 1683AD.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125995785612

[electronic_guy]

What are the type of logic probes that match with the Agilent 1683AD ? I can see different grabber types for sale, but not sure which part number matches the actual instrument ? how to search for grabbers and data pods of agilent brand ? please let me know if anyone have used them. needs to know before buying anything.

[alm]

Look for a PDF document by HP/Agilent/Keysight called "probing solutions for logic analyzers", and then look under 40-pin probes. You probably want the ones with flying leads.

[MarkL]

What are the type of logic probes that match with the Agilent 1683AD ? I can see different grabber types for sale, but not sure which part number matches the actual instrument ? how to search for grabbers and data pods of agilent brand ? please let me know if anyone have used them. needs to know before buying anything.

Take a look here:

  https://www.keysight.com/us/en/assets/7018-06707/data-sheets/5968-4632.pdf

The 1683AD uses the 40-pin probing system.  If you are looking for flying lead connections, you will need one or more probe cables 16715-61601 (looks like a ribbon cable but it's not plain ribbon), 17-channel flying lead sets E5383A or 01650-61608 (old part #), and any grabbers with a 25mil posts (Keysight ones are 5090-4833).

If you're buying your 1683A used, you'll want to buy it with the probe cables and flying leads.  Both can be had on ebay, but the extra cost adds up.  A good search term is "hp pod" or "agilent pod" or "hp logic cable".  You can also search for the part numbers above, but that will usually pull up entries by sellers who know what they are doing and usually charge more (not that that's a bad thing, but the cables are usually just fine from anyone).

For grabbers, take a look here:

  https://sigrok.org/wiki/Probe_comparison

I like the Tektronix ones, 206-0364-01 or SMG50.  A search for "tektronix test clips" will probably find them cheaper.

[gslick]

The best deal is always when the logic analyzer comes with all of the necessary standard accessories.

The second best deal if you are patient and can wait for them to show up on eBay is to buy a complete accessory set: 16550-68702, 16555-68702, 16715-68702. In the past those could sometimes be found for less than $100 on eBay. Maybe not anymore.

One of those sealed as new sets will contain the following (the 16550 version contains 6 instead of 4):
Probe Tip Assembly, Qty 4 01650-61608
Grabbers, Qty 4 packages (20 grabbers per package) 5090-4356, or 5090-4833
Extra Probe Leads, Qty 1 package 5959-9333
Extra Probe Grounds, Qty 4 packages 5959-9334
Probe Cable and Pod Labels, Qty 1 01650-94310, or 01650-94312

The new part number for the 01650-61608 is the E5383A / E5383B
https://www.keysight.com/us/en/product/E5383B/single-ended-flying-leads-with-40-pin-cable-connector.html

[electronic_guy]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

I looked at the auction you have suggested when it was active and it seemed a bit risky to buy something that doesn’t show anything on the display. By the look of the seller’s other items for sell, it cannot be the case that he didn’t know anything to even turn ON and show the display. He has many other test equipment that were photographed with display ON. I’ve had my fare share of as-is and for parts drama. Not worth the risk I think. Otherwise it seems like a really good deal. I wonder what was wrong with it.

I ended up buying a working agilent 1683AD for just 200 USD. Since my interest is mostly in RF, it’s better I don’t spend a lot on a logic analyzer. My sole intention is to learn how to use a professional logic analyzer and test some FPGA designs. Since FPGAs come handy in RF field also now that RF subsystems are integrated inside I think it’s time for me to get to know a logic analyzer. The self tests on the unit I bought are all passed. Still got to test it though. If you have any ideas on testing it to detect if it has any hardware or software fault, please let me know. Waiting for some grabbers to start testing it.

[gslick]

If it is fully functional, an Agilent 1683AD for $200 seems like a fairly reasonable price. That's not much above what an older 1673G with similar acquisition specs might sell at.

I'm not sure why, but the 168xA / 168xAD series seem to have rather high asking prices on eBay compared to older 167xG series or newer 168xxA series self-contained portable logic analyzers.

Sometimes run this search on eBay and the asking prices seem a bit crazy:
"agilent (1680ad, 1681ad, 1682ad, 1683ad, 1690ad, 1691ad, 1692ad, 1693ad)"

The AD models are more desirable than the A models due to the 4x sample memory depth. The 168xA / 168xAD series and the 169xA / 169xAD series use identical logic acquisition modules. The acquisition modules interface to the controlling PC through a 1394 port. In the case of the 169xA / 169xAD series the controlling PC is an external PC with a 1394 card. In the case of the 168xA / 168xAD series the controlling PC is integrated into the analyzer with a standard PIII motherboard and PCI 1394 card internally cabled to the acquisition module. One thing about these series is that for some reason the 1394 ports seems like they can die. Maybe the 1394 phy chip fails. I have seen several 169xA / 169xAD series listings on eBay where the photos show a 1394 cable being routed to one of the internal 1394 ports instead of the front panel 1394 port. If the 1394 port fails, then the logic analyzer application obviously can't connect to the logic analyzer at all.

If the logic analyzer application connects to the analyzer and all of the self test pass, that is a pretty could sign that it is fully functional. The only other thing that can go wrong that might not be detected by the self tests is the failure of any channels in the front end logic level comparators, for example from exceeding the maximum voltage input levels, or static discharges. You need to feed some sort of input signal (for example a TTL level oscillator clock signal) into each input channel and check for activity instead of stuck low or high levels.

[gslick]

If you see a photo that looks like this on eBay, it usually a good indication that the front panel 1394 port of the 169xA / 169xAD series logic analyzer has failed. The 1394 cable is supposed to plug into the 1394 port on the far right of the front panel instead of being routed into the chassis and plugged into one of the internal 1394 ports. If one of the 1394 ports fails, it might not be long before other ports might also fail.