HP/Agilent/Keysomehing 1670G Logic Analyzer (pics added)

[BloodyCactus]

the agilent ftp server has the latest system images for these things. 3 or four floppies.

where abouts, do you know? I went to ftp://ftp.agilent.com/ and its a mass of usernames.. couldnt find anything. (service manual in the manuals directory)

I have a zip of the OS, so I assume thats the same, but could not find anything on the ftp site.

[DIPLover]

You can get it directly from the Keysight website :

http://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=sw574&lc=eng&cc=CA&nid=-536902556.536879990&id=sw574

just visit the 1670g product page, click Visit Technical Support -> Drivers, Firmware and Software and so on.

same thing for 1660c/cs series here :

http://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=sw569&lc=eng&cc=CA&nid=-536902556.536880198&id=sw569

That's a 1992 product! I call THAT long term support!

[PlainName]

There were however "preprocessors" or "analysis probes" you could buy that would let you do real-time disassembly using the scope, but you needed a specific one for every CPU family and they seem very rare for these models.

This is going back some, but I think many, if not most, of the probes were simply mechanical and electrical interfaces to the target system. Decoding of captures occured in the LA (using the apps provided with the probes).

Certainly, the last time I used my 16700 seriously I was debugging a PCI bus and had it decoding bus transactions to flag up invalid ones. The hardest part was indeed connecting 60-odd signal inputs to a tiny chip not designed for any kind of probe attachment (this was a custom board, so no PCI card slot, and probably why it needed debugging in the first place!).

[DIPLover]

There were however "preprocessors" or "analysis probes" you could buy that would let you do real-time disassembly using the scope, but you needed a specific one for every CPU family and they seem very rare for these models.

This is going back some, but I think many, if not most, of the probes were simply mechanical and electrical interfaces to the target system. Decoding of captures occured in the LA (using the apps provided with the probes).

Agreed the physical probes are mainly used for electrical interfacing, but the software they included is nowhere to be found.

Never buy any preprocessor hardware without software!

[BloodyCactus]

You can get it directly from the Keysight website :

http://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=sw574&lc=eng&cc=CA&nid=-536902556.536879990&id=sw574

just visit the 1670g product page, click Visit Technical Support -> Drivers, Firmware and Software and so on.

same thing for 1660c/cs series here :

http://www.keysight.com/main/software.jspx?ckey=sw569&lc=eng&cc=CA&nid=-536902556.536880198&id=sw569

That's a 1992 product! I call THAT long term support!

Thats the software I have. Wondered if its the same stuff people sell on ebay for "disk 1" for 50$ and "disk 2" for 50$ etc crazy.

I noticed the 1670 is newer, updated in 2000, the 1660 older, updated in 2005!

[DIPLover]

Both files are dated 2000 in their readme.

1660 software is actually an upgrade for me, time to exercise the old flash again 

[free_electron]

the agilent ftp server has the latest system images for these things. 3 or four floppies.

where abouts, do you know? I went to ftp://ftp.agilent.com/ and its a mass of usernames.. couldnt find anything. (service manual in the manuals directory)

I have a zip of the OS, so I assume thats the same, but could not find anything on the ftp site.

i have the links bookmarket at home  but there should be a /pub/calxx/logic or something like that.  xx is a number form 00 to 99

[BloodyCactus]

when I scored this off ebay, it had one fault. Im not sure what it really means as I can capture data on it and so forth. "Comparators Test failed" "Clock/Data comparators test failed".

I've created and ran test signals through and its captured data fine so I dont really know what the error message is or in what subsystem etc.

wondering if its some simple chip I can replace but taking this thing apart is a huge pain in the butt.

anyone have any ideas?

[MadTux]

Do you have the probe pods for all channels? (250Ohm resistor with 8.2pF/91kOhm in series)
http://www.mikrocontroller.net/attachment/217844/hpla4.jpg

If you have that, connect all probes to a variable amplitude/offset pulse generator and see whether some channels are dead or if there are voltage levels in which the generator doesn't trigger properly.

If there is/are dead Channel/channels, (parts) of one of those Agilent labeled chips in the frontend is most likely fried.

If there are bad voltage ranges across all channels, look where the comparator voltage is generated and measure it with a DVM, since the comparator voltage is shared across all channels on the 16500 cards.
If you're lucky, it's only a bad DAC or opamp.

[BloodyCactus]

hmm ok. I have the HP pods/flying leads sets 1-4. Ill do some testing across all 8 cables and see what I get.

It didnt occure to me to try test ALL 132 channels. doh!

[MadTux]

Sure, test em all. And use the probes. Because #1 cause of death of these things are stupid users that apply too much voltage or static electricity to the input.

The input without probe has a resistance of 10k to ground. So 90k resistor with the 8.2p capacitor forms a 10x divider. Max input voltage with probe is 40V IIRC. So 4V max. without probe. And a 10k input is quite easy to kill with static.

Here's the service manual for the 15555A. They are all the same. Yours just has twice as much channels.
cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/16555-97012.pdf

BTW: The LA even shows you which channel is dead:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hpagilentkeysomehing-1670g-logic-analyzer/?action=dlattach;attach=130741;image
Big B for bad on the 1th channel (clock input) of second pod on Slot A

If you look closely, there's a crack/dirt/wire etc on the lowest resistor array there, maybe that's the cause

[BloodyCactus]

BTW: The LA even shows you which channel is dead:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hpagilentkeysomehing-1670g-logic-analyzer/?action=dlattach;attach=130741;image
Big B for bad on the 1th channel (clock input) of second pod on Slot A

If you look closely, there's a crack/dirt/wire etc on the lowest resistor array there, maybe that's the cause

wow, didnt realise that. so the CLK on Pod 1.

Took me a bit to see what you were point at in the photo, I'll have to take it apart and see what the deal is on that chip! good eyes. I didnt see it when I had it open originally.

cheer mate!

[free_electron]

just scored  a 1670G for 75$ ... WITH the pattern generator built in.

it has some issues. like the floppy cable is missing. someone been in there. it does pass power -on selftest ( apart form the floppy of course ).

let's see where we get with this one.

[BloodyCactus]

nice! i  love using the 1670G, just wish it was a bit faster but its fantastic bit of kit. i have not used the pattern generator (did not buy the special/required pattern generator pod for it)

[skranish]

Is there someone here who can tell me how to remove the feet from the HP1670G without breaking something? They are different from the long-used slide-off feet.
My HP1670G needs a new disk drive. I have a laptop IDE drive to install. I have the unit disassembled, but it appears that I cannot slide the works out without removing the bottom feet. The service manual really provides no clue. There are no obvious screws, and it looks like it is somehow snapped into place.

thanks

Steve

[gslick]

Is there someone here who can tell me how to remove the feet from the HP1670G without breaking something? They are different from the long-used slide-off feet.

The bottom feet on the 1670G are part number 54810-61001, which use 4 mounting holes instead of 3 used by the earlier bottom feet design.

Squeeze the 2 tabs in from the sides so that 2 of the lugs can clear the holes they are mounted in, and then the foot can then be pivoted out and away from the bottom of the case. Then slide the foot to free the other 2 lugs from the holes they are mounted in.

[skranish]

Thanks. I did finally get this figured out.
I installed a new 20G Travelstar, and copied the two floppies of images to it. Machine claims I have 2G of disk space. Is this a DOS file limitation?
I suppose I could have installed a smaller drive, but this one was new, so it seemed like a better idea.

Now.. it works!

I have worked with the Salae logic analyzers. The are great for decoding I2C and SPI data, but for anything with a complex trigger.. no so much. I generally prefer this style of logic analyzer, although I miss having access to the address and data busses. I used to use the LA to watch state variables...