Products > Test Equipment
HP 8594E Spectrum Analyzer. At last I own a decent Spec An.
TerraHertz:
I've never owned (or even used) a decent spectrum analyzer. Now I do. Lifelong goal achieved! (Though maybe I am tempting the international shipping gremlins by talking about it before it arrives.)
Over past decades I'd picked up two very old HP 141T systems for free. But the prospect of getting those going, even though I did get the manuals, was too daunting. I am not experienced with RF, and lacking anything to compare results against as a confidence boost, faded storage CRTs, and no prospect of transferring measurements to a PC other than by taking screen photos, that project kept sliding down the list.
Otoh, more modern spectrum analyzers are always quite expensive (on my retired & cash-poor scale.) So it just never happened.
Recently while doing some small ebay buys, I came across this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-KEYSIGHT-8594E-SPECTRUM-ANALYZER-W-OPTIONS-041-0B0-140/263612094651
8594E SPECTRUM ANALYZER W/OPTIONS 041, 0B0, 140 “POWER CORD NOT INCLUDED. THE CASE IS BENT IN THE BACK."
US $649.99
It sure is 'bent in the back.' Has been very heavily dropped. The bent metal is visually ugly and offputting, but something I could repair. It runs, but what's the internal damage? I thought they might accept a much lower offer, like maybe $300, and that would make the gamble worthwhile.
Nope. The lowest they'd go was US$600. Not very sensible imo, and certainly not an acceptable price. So I looked around a bit more. Expecting everything equivalent to be still out of my price range. (Shipping plus the pathetic Aus exchange rate are the killing touch.)
Found this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-8594E-Spectrum-Analyzer-Options-041-105-140-User-Manuals/122514312297
8594E Spectrum Analyzer + Options: 041, 105, 140 + User Manuals
US $850.00
Options: 041, HP-IB & parallel printer interfaces
105, Time gated spec analysis
140 Narrow bandwidth and precision freq ref
The user manuals included: Programmer's, User's, & Calibration Guide.
This is a HUGE plus for me (who has never used one before, and bitterly hates PDF unwieldy garbage 'manuals'.)
Apparently other people thought it was an interesting deal too, as it had about 15 watchers. Or rather 15 ditherers.
I've bought from this seller before, and had checked that they would pack with foam-in-place. Essential for shipping
something like this internationally.
After a short offer & counter offer sequence, I got it for US$600 and its on its way. I'm sure some will relate stories of getting equivalent instruments for far less, hoping to spoil my buzz. But I'm happy with the price. Though now broke again.
Next I get to enjoy the new Aus 'GST on second hand imported goods', which they enforce on reshippers by arguing 'it's a tax on the service of reshipping' but really just because they can. Urrgh. Bastards. How I'd love to see Canberra nuked.
Anyway...
I'm interested to hear any hints and tips people may have on the HP 8594e. Certainly anyone who knows anything at all about these instruments, knows more than me.
Specific things I'm after:
* The matching PC software.
* Any other user guides that aren't in the set I'm getting. Like quick setup guide, and so on.
* The personality cards. Are there any good sources of these? Or just the binaries, and a design for the cards?
* Other options hardware, like maybe the internal tracking generator.
I'm betting there is no actual for-real service manual with schematics available? Prove me wrong.
Some of seller's photos attached.
0culus:
http://artekmanuals.com/manuals/hp-manuals/ ctrl-F for 8594E, and it looks like they have what you might be looking for.
Looks like a nice grab! I have an 8568B on the way myself.
TerraHertz:
--- Quote from: 0culus on January 22, 2019, 04:23:41 am ---http://artekmanuals.com/manuals/hp-manuals/ ctrl-F for 8594E, and it looks like they have what you might be looking for.
Looks like a nice grab!
--- End quote ---
Splendid! I didn't want to seem like I'm too lazy to search, but I only bought it yesterday and haven't yet begun searching. Asked, because people can be so helpful. Thank you.
http://artekmanuals.com/manuals/hp-manuals/ search for 8594E finds:
* Service NO 8590-90316 $10.00 ASSEMBLY LEVEL SERVICE ( NO SCHEMATICS)
* CLIP YES 5963-2951 $25.00 FULL SCHEMATICS SCANNED AT 1200 DPI
That is quite surprising. I'd thought this model was produced well into the era when HP didn't give out schematics.
Saved for reference. Just now I'm so broke that scraping up enough for the shipping from CA to Oz will be a problem.
I don't suppose anyone (in Oz, or better yet Sydney) wants a good deal on a Sony a7ii camera?
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/revesby/digital-slr/sony-a7ii-excellent-condition-extras-included-/1207151994
I'm selling that for my son (he left it here when he moved overseas) but I get to keep the money. Too bad I put off selling it till now (just after Sony released a new model.)
--- Quote from: 0culus on January 22, 2019, 04:23:41 am ---I have an 8568B on the way myself.
--- End quote ---
:) Those monster things look awesome. The perfect thing to satisfy one's TEA, and I had that model on my list of possibles. But given my lack of RF skills, and lack of remaining spare rack space, I thought I'd go for something smaller, portable, and less likely to be out of cal. I hope you do a teardown when it arrives.
0culus:
Hey, no worries on the manuals. It's nice that they do still have schematics for that model. :)
As it happens, a teardown and repair may be happening. Not as bad as it sounds though! The original RF unit as-listed developed problems overnight with broadband noise when the seller tested it before shipping. After much troubleshooting he couldn't find the issue (but isolated it to a few candidates) so he is sending me the display unit, the problem RF unit, and another RF unit that's actually a factory upgraded 8568A to 8568B unit, just for a bit of extra shipping.
You could buy the upgrade kit in the day and do it yourself, but a lot of places sent them to the factory to be upgraded. So it has both it's original 1977 serial number and a B serial number applied in 1985 when the upgrade was installed. That unit is in perfectly fine working order. So I'm going to be looking around for a "donor" RF unit that hopefully is in working order that I can swap parts to the problematic unit until I locate the source of the noise that appears to be coming from somewhere in the mixer/LO chain. Definitely will share pics/progress on that.
MarkL:
--- Quote from: TerraHertz on January 22, 2019, 02:47:38 am ---I'm interested to hear any hints and tips people may have on the HP 8594e.
...
--- End quote ---
One thing you should do is backup the calibration constants. They are stored in battery powered SRAM and if the battery dies unexpectedly you will need to regenerate the constants via the calibration procedure. If you have a copy of the constants you can just reload them if the battery dies.
The backup procedure is in the Assembly Level Repair manual, chapter 3. It's a manual procedure which involves stepping through the constants and writing them down in a chart.
In case you didn't buy the Assembly Repair manual from Artek:
http://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/08590-90316.pdf
And the Calibration Guide, in your hated PDF format, FYI:
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/08594-90106.pdf
There's lots of documentation on this series still available from Keysight including the user manual and a manual on how to use your gated analysis option 105:
https://www.keysight.com/en/pc-1000000308%3Aepsg%3Apgr/discontinued-859x-series-portable-spectrum-analyzers?pm=LB&nid=-32440.0&c=204590.i.1&to=79830.g.0&cc=US&lc=eng
The CLIP with schematics is definitely worth getting from Artek. There are versions of the CLIP floating around for the 8590A, which is close in design to the 859xE series, but the scans are poor quality.
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