HP AGILENT E4433B ESG-D SERIES SIGNAL GENERATOR 250KHZ-4.0GHZ

[Gandalf_Sr]

Just picked one up on eBay for a good price.  It has following options:

100  Multicarrier, multichannel W-CDMA personality (for Option UND)
IE5  High-stability timebase
200  Real-time 3GPP W-CDMA personality (for Option UN8)
201  Real-time cdma2000 personality for Option UN8
UN8  Real-time I/Q baseband generator with 1M RAM
UN9  Add 7M RAM to Option UN8
UND  Internal dual arbitrary waveform generator

I got it and it works, I dialled up 2 and 4 GHz at -10 dBm and saw those values on my N1996A.

it's a bit scuffed up and the display is dimmer than I'd like but perfectly readable.  Have cleaned it up, taken out the ccfl backlight, and ordered a replacement ccfl bulb (3mm x 112mm) from ccflwarehouse.  I'll post some pictures later but any comments or advice would be welcome.

[Gandalf_Sr]

The first major improvement I've made is by replacing the backlight, thought others might like to see how much improvement can be had.  The service manual for the E4433B shows how to get to the backlight but says you must disconnect all the wires going to the front panel; I did it by only disconnecting the hard coax output connector and the 2 wire connector that feeds the backlight, you can then carefully lean the front panel unit forwards so it rests face down and then take off the aluminum back plate and get at the display.

My backlight looked weak and greenish and the system menus told me it had run for almost 60,000 hours.  I took the backlight out and measured the size of the ccfl tube at 3 x 110 mm.  There's a company called ccfl warehouse (www.ccflwarehouse.com) that sell a 3 x 112 mm ccfl for $10 plus another $5 for shipping - the official part from Agilent costs $260 - yes the new one is 2 mm longer but there's plenty of room so it fits.  When the new ccfl arrived, I cut the wires off the old ccfl, cleaned up and tinned the wire ends, prepped the new ccfl by carefully bending the wires, cutting them back, and tinning them so they matched the old one.  Then I soldered the wires to the new ccfl and put it back in the slot reusing the old insulating caps.

On power up, the new ccfl took about 30 seconds to reach full brightness and the difference was huge, after tweaking the contrast and brightness, my display looked almost like the glossy pictures for the ESG when it was new - see the pictures in the next post.

[Gandalf_Sr]

Here's a couple of pictures of the display after the backlight replacement.  I showed one with the display inverted to make a fair comparison with the 'before' picture but the one I like is the first one which is also running at brightness 25 vs the original pre-ccfl change level which was 38.

[PA0PBZ]

That looks like a great improvement. Luckily mine still looks about as good as yours after the mod so I'm fine. Should check the run hours though...

[Gandalf_Sr]

Thanks, I'm VERY happy with the result.

[nctnico]

I got a bit creative with the display in my E4421B:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/e4421b-restauration-project/msg575759/#msg575759

[Gandalf_Sr]

I got a bit creative with the display in my E4421B:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/e4421b-restauration-project/msg575759/#msg575759

Yes, I saw that. It looks great but it seemed like a lot of work to make a PCB+FPGA code to do the video conversion!

[PA0PBZ]

Should check the run hours though...

Just short of 20K, so one third of your unit.

[nctnico]

I got a bit creative with the display in my E4421B:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/e4421b-restauration-project/msg575759/#msg575759

Yes, I saw that. It looks great but it seemed like a lot of work to make a PCB+FPGA code to do the video conversion!

Initially yes but I have done several similar conversions in several types of equipment. For me it's mostly an exercise to keep my VHDL skills sharp 

[Gandalf_Sr]

Just short of 20K, so one third of your unit.

That's good Paul, I'm in awe of the quality of the Agilent stuff - mine's run for 6.8 years actual run time and, apart from a worn out ccfl tube, it's still going strong.  Because I had to register with the Keysight web site, they sent me an email that suggested I upgrade to the N5172B EXG X-Series RF Vector Signal Generator, 9 kHz to 6 GHz, seems like a very nice piece of kit but the price is "from US$22,215" - gulp.

[PA0PBZ]

Because I had to register with the Keysight web site, they sent me an email that suggested I upgrade to the N5172B EXG X-Series RF Vector Signal Generator, 9 kHz to 6 GHz, seems like a very nice piece of kit but the price is "from US$22,215" - gulp.

Yeah they do that, but not very aggressive - I can live with that.
Would be nice to have, maybe in 20 years 

[Gandalf_Sr]

Maybe in 20 years, I'll be able to buy one of these for $1,500 on eBay...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Keysight-Premium-Used-E8267D-PSG-vector-signal-generator-44-GHz-Agilent-E8267D-/181931348197?hash=item2a5bf410e5:g:7vcAAOSwFGNWRd1S

Hey, but if I buy it NOW, I can 'save' almost $90,000, it is Black Friday here after all.

[G0HZU]

I've got a couple of the E4433 sig gens here. One is an A version and one is a B.

The A version is very similar to the B except that it isn't (wasn't) as well supported by Agilent so there are fewer design tools available for it and also it is lacking a few menus/features available on the B. Also, the firmware development for the A seemed to stop soon after the B version was released. So I would avoid the A versions (and choose a B instead) unless you find one at a price you can't refuse.

I do like using these generators, especially the E4433B if it has the Dual Arb option UND. This transforms it into a very versatile signal generator.

The most significant downside is the frequency plan the E443x uses to generate signals down at LF>>HF>VHF because it uses a basic BFO/downmixer from UHF. So the close in phase noise performance is extremely poor on the lower frequency ranges when compared to a few classic old school generators.

[tv84]

Sorry for digging this up...

Here.

[PA0PBZ]

Sorry for digging this up...

Here.

All I can see is a picture of a license generator... would be nice to have 

[vtp]

Sorry for digging this up...

Here.

Very nice. Definitely do not work for my E4406A, nor for E4445A with hostid and licence found in the net nor for my E4438C. Can't validate existing keys for any of those with given information. Process and tool usage is right as hostid and AYZ key given for the development target (in E4407B thread) produces ok result.

Perhaps the seeds are then applicaple only to E4000B-series.  Awful lot of digging if seeds need to be dug up for each instrument or instrument series.

[Amywart]

Thanks for sharing

[Gandalf_Sr]

This is a good link for the options for the E4433B https://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5965-4973E.pdf?id=1000031178:epsg:dow

I followed the links in the recent posts here but all I got to was a .png picture of some sort of license generator?

[colorado.rob]

Need a bit of help using the E4433B. I am trying to use the LF Output to get baseband signals from the custom modulator.

I verified that the LF Output connector works by setting the LF Out Source to Function Generator and sending a simple sine wave out.

I then configured the LF Out Source to "Internal Modulation" and set up a custom modulator "Mode|Real Time I/Q BaseBand|Custom".  I then set up a simple 4-FSK modulation with 4.8k SPS.  I verified that this works as expected on the RF output.  I also see the I/Q components of the custom modulator on the rear I/Q outputs.

However, with the custom modulator enabled and LF Out enabled, I do not see the baseband signal (I+Q) on the LF Output.  Is this possible?

[colorado.rob]

If anyone needs to upload data to an ESG-D series VSA, I have posted code to do that here:

https://gist.github.com/mobilinkd/fb2be8508dd1dae7be887e60e8b37186

This allows up one to upload a file to an ESG-D series vector signal generator connected via a ProLogix-compatible USB GPIB devices.  (These can be found for about $30 on AliExpress.)

[syau]

Wonder if anybody have the code so that I can adjust (correct) the output level at 3-4GHz. My unit tend to drop 2dbm at 4GHz when measure with a power meter.

[Symeon]

Hello everybody,
purchased an E4433BG unit,testing it the output frquency id pretty accurate butthe amplitude is problematic....for example,setting it to 0dBm/10 MHz it gives -0.12dBm upon switching on and after about half an hour of operation it goes down to -0.45 dBm it carries an elecronic attenuator,any idea if this is an attenuator problem or one or more active stages are suffering / changing as the temperature increases during operation? the unit was toroughly cleaned ,voltages checked on motherboard and are correct...any ideas? thank you. 

[roxbox]

EPSG software from HP https://roxbox.net/EPSG/

the above includes links to the downloads and links to just the README files

FixFuzzy
RemH98
Bluetooth waveforms for ESG-D and -DP
8648 Test Package
ESG E44XXB Test package
ESG AP/DP Test package
ESG E4438C Test package

Does anyone have links to other old HP adjustment software?

[roxbox]

All I can see is a picture of a license generator... would be nice to have 

You definitely are not doing the homework!  Google the generator and use it as shown.

Hint: Search for "lmcryptgui.rar".

Does anyone have a working link, every google link to lmcryptgui.rar seems to be a bust.

Got it, Thank You!

[Tony_G]

Resurrecting an old thread in case someone has run into this.

While the thread was about the B series ESG SigGens, I have a C series ESG (E4438C) and when I try to use the associated service software I get an FMS Error "Could not retrieve model from Driver".

Did anyone suffer this and if so did you manage to solve it?

Thanks,

TonyG