Products > Test Equipment
My poor mans SMU - The Agilent 66311B
TheSteve:
--- Quote from: gslick on February 22, 2016, 01:16:03 am ---Cool, thanks for taking the time to dump the A.02.04 firmware. AMD Am27C2048 parts are no longer available new but Mouser has the Atmel AT27C2048 in stock for around $4 each. I'll have to pick up some blank parts and give the A.02.04 firmware a try.
I do see the COUPLE:OUTPUT string in the A.02.04 firmware binary which isn't present in the A.02.02 firmware binary. That is consistent with the User's Guide part number 5964-8125. Of course that doesn't make any difference in the single output 66311B/D models.
Also I noticed "PEEK" and "POKE" strings in the firmware binary. I wonder if those could be used to read and write the cal/config 93C86 EEPROM? I'll have to try to experiment with that.
--- End quote ---
I haven't tried it but the 53131A/53132A series of frequency counters lets you read/write the calibration data via GPIB, you could always give that a shot via GPIB or the serial port for fun.
gslick:
FWIW, it appears that the commands "DIAG:PEEK? #H0000" through "DIAG:PEEK? #HFFFF" will dump the 256KB firmware 4 bytes at a time.
If the config/cal EEPROM is also mapped somewhere in the DIAG:PEEK address space it would take some time to try to figure that out.
gslick:
As a simple exercise in PyVISA programming I wrote a simple script to read the firmware from a 66309D through the GPIB interface and dump it to a binary file. It took about 22 minutes to run to completion using an E2050A GPIB/LAN gateway to interface to the 66309D. I verified that the firmware binary file dumped using this method exactly matched the A.02.02 binary file produced by dumping the Am27C2048 EPROM using a device programmer.
I'm a complete novice at Python programming and I'm sure there are better and more elegant ways to implement this, but it did the job...
TheSteve:
Very cool! Perhaps someone will receive a unit with newer firmware and can dump it for the rest of us without even opening it up.
nctnico:
I have received my 66311B today together with the feet I ordered from Malaysia. Mine has a knob and rear bezel so at least it is complete. After setting it to 230V it worked right away. It seems my one is controlling the fan speed based on the amount of current drawn from it. My 66311B is missing the name plate and the plastic covering the display was dull (which made the VFD hard to read). I polished it back to being shiny using a strong polish for use on a car.
The unit is very heavy indeed. Not so much because of the transformer but due to the steel casing and inner frame. I wish Agilent/Keysight kept using the light weight aluminium chassis and casings.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version