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Tektronix TDS Scope Field Adjustment Software reverse engineering
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DC1MC:
This post where even our fearless TERRA  8)  contributed has links that still work for the FAS and some goodies:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-tds-series-scopes-field-calibration-software-plus-other-utilities/

@TERRA: Maybe you could edit the first post and add the pointers to the SW ?

 Cheers,
 DC1MC
timeandfrequency:

--- Quote from: DC1MC on February 19, 2023, 12:24:09 pm ---
--- Quote from: TERRA Operative on February 19, 2023, 11:53:28 am ---It is possible to use an RF amplifier, here is an adventure someone had in using one on youtube:

Youtube  video   v=wSqTj4gGCJ

--- End quote ---

OK, someone with a lot of scopes should drag fenugrec here :)

--- End quote ---
Hi all,

Pretty interesting sequence.
Performing the manual calibration sequence takes a huge amont of time, that's why cal benches are as much as possible automated.
But luckily, if the recommended software controlled test gear is not available, using alternate TE is still possible in manual mode.

When @fenugrec started the high frequency calibration, I was surprised that he used clothesline quality coax cable (RG58) between the RF generator and the DUT.
But he figured it out where the mistake was located, and nicely compensated manually for the cable loss.
Metrology-grade coax cables are so affordable...

For the channel sync setup, using a basic T-BNC ruins impedance matching and leads to spurious reflections in the cables. A 50 Ohm power splitter and matched cables would have been a better choice, if available.
DC1MC:
OK, in MY archives I've discovered this gem (attached), could anyone confirm that is the real deal for TDS7xx series ?
TERRA Operative:
To run a cal routine (fully successfully) in my case, here is what I used on the PC side:

- PC with ISA slot on the motherboard (I have a Dell Precision MT410)
- National Instruments GPIB-PCII/IIA GPIB card
- DOS v6.22
- NI drivers installed and configured (along with jumpers on the card and BIOS settings) for the default Tek FAS settings (see below).

Attached to this post is my Autoexec.bat and config.sys (I renamed the file extensions to prevent Windows from hiding the files).



The National Instruments 'GPIBInfo' app says this about my setup:


--- Code: ---Software Information:
The NI-488.2 Software for MS-DOS is loaded.
You are running Version 2.6 for the GPIB-PCIIA board.
It supports both the NI-488 functions and NI-488.2 routines.
It does not support the HS488 high-speed protocol.

Hardware Information:
GPIB0: GPIB-PCIIA board using the NAT4882 chip.
It supports both the NI-488 functions and NI-488.2 protocols.
It does not support the HS488 high-speed protocol.
It uses base I/O address 0x2e1.
It uses interrupt level 7.
It uses DMA channel 1.

--- End code ---


The TDS Scope service manual has the following to say:

Adjustment of this oscilloscope requires a computer with hard drive, 3.5 inch 1.44 MByte floppy drive, and the following items:
For DOS software:
- An IBM PC compatible computer running DOS 3.2 or higher. A math coprocessor is strongly recommended.
- 640K resident RAM with 580 K available RAM.
- A GPIB board — National Instruments GPIB-PCII, GPIB-PCIIA or GPIB-PCII/IIA. (A PC-GPIB Package that includes the PCII/IIA is available — Tektronix part number S3FG210)

For Windows NT software:
- An Intel compatible computer running Windows NT.
- A GPIB board and software — National Instruments AT–GPIB/TNT, Windows NT (INTEL).


Now that last bit is interesting, I have never seen the Windows NT software........................


And also attached to this post is the TDS700D version of the Field Adjustment Software, as installed on my machine.
This is how it is unpacked and installed ready for use, using the GPIB addresses etc above, so is good for decompilation etc.
TERRA Operative:

--- Quote from: DC1MC on February 19, 2023, 04:14:13 pm ---OK, in MY archives I've discovered this gem (attached), could anyone confirm that is the real deal for TDS7xx series ?


--- End quote ---

Yep, it's a valid version.

I just edited the original post with a link to Google drive with all the FAS versions I have.
These are the install files, so they are copied to floppy disk and installed on the PC used for calibration which unpacks all the actual software and config files.
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