Products > Test Equipment

Sencore LC102 & LC103 Capacitor & Inductor Analyzer

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NY2KW:
You can run a 32b Win XP as a virtual machine in any Windows 10 environment.  Just need to download a copy of XP with SP3 and easy to find product keys by Google.

Jerry

HighVoltage:

--- Quote from: NY2KW on February 03, 2020, 04:42:36 am ---You can run a 32b Win XP as a virtual machine in any Windows 10 environment.  Just need to download a copy of XP with SP3 and easy to find product keys by Google.

Jerry

--- End quote ---
This does work for a few applications.

... I have an old Fluke Software that was made for Win98 and works perfectly
within XP, but I can not get it to run on a virtual XP machine.
Therefore I am keeping a few pure XP machines around in the lab.

So, I am looking forward testing this LC103 software on XP.

Sencoretech:
As the last Sencore Tech to officially service these let me answer these questions:

First of the error you are getting is because you are missing the cal text file as you stated.  This contains your expected software revisions as well as the expected vs actual values of your test fixtures.  With out this file the calibration will not be accurate.  I do think it'll run but it'll go to the default values and whatever it pushes to your LC103 might be in the ball park but probably out of the tolerance you'll want.

What you need for cal it a cap decade box, inductance decade box, some coils for calibrating the ringer(this is manual and rarely is ever out of spec) and a 20 ohm resistor for the ESR calibration.  What you can't get is the proprietary current source and leakage current box.  I know sencore had two of them made and I've only briefly looked at them, they are a series of relays/caps/resistors with an IEEE port to talk to the PC to make calibration partially automated.   

All the data is sent to the LC103 via the RS232 port on the back,  if you look at the menu you will notice it erases all the cal data as one of the first sets so I would not run this since you'll never be able calibrate the current source.

I haven't worked at Sencore in 3+ years so I don't know if any of the old set up still exists, I'm guessing not but it was there when I was walked out the door so maybe they still have it stuff in storage somewhere.

Sorry for not having better info for you.





--- Quote from: philexile on February 02, 2020, 04:47:22 pm ---Hello,

I acquired a Sencore LC103 from an auction this past summer. Luckily, it seems to work well. At the time, I did some digging for any information I could about the unit and, over time, came up with some interesting materials....

1. Complete BOM files for the LC77, LC102, and LC103

2. Calibration procedures for  LC77, LC102, and LC103

3. Schematics and parts lists for the LC77, LC102, and LC103

4. Common fix list for the LC103

5. Sencore's "FinalCal" calibration software for the LC103


I'm assuming that item 5 will interest most people here.  8)

The FinalCal software is complete (please see the attached pictures of the software up and running on my old XP laptop) and even includes the source code in a separate folder. There are some things to figure out though, see below:

• You will see in the calibration procedure instructions, included with the images, that there are a few separate items called for: final test box, cal disk (more on this in the next point), ringer test box, and ringer cal box. There is also a note towards the end instructing the operator to bring the unit to the z-meter bench in "Service."

• When opening the software, there is a prompt to insert the floppy disk NOW. This is also noted in step 4 of the calibration procedure document – but there it is called "cal disk" and not floppy. I believe this floppy would have included the two "cal" files called for in step 6: "P071_03.cal" and "P72_10.cal" – thankfully, I have these files as well. I haven't been able to try to include them on a floppy disk however as I don't have any floppies currently!

• There is an error shown in the pictures, related to LabVIEW. I'm not sure what this means. It is possible that even though my LC103 was hooked up via the RS232 port, it wasn't communicating properly. I didn't troubleshoot this.

• I am able to navigate to the two cal files, but I haven't run any of the tests or calibrations, since I'm still trying to figure this out – and I'm still missing essential parts of the calibration – the external "boxes."

So where do I go from here? I'm hoping that some of you can help! I think the biggest obstacles will be finding or reproducing the external "boxes" as I assume they were Sencore's proprietary units: final test box, ringer test box, and ringer cal box. That said –

• Maybe a former Sencore tech can help out here?
• Perhaps some information can be gleemed from the source code?

In any case, with this software, I think we are much closer to having these units be serviceable by their owners -- as it should be in 2020!

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Best Regards

--- End quote ---

philexile:
Hi Sencoretech,

Thank you for getting back to me! I have a few followup questions, please see below –


--- Quote ---First of the error you are getting is because you are missing the cal text file as you stated. This contains your expected software revisions as well as the expected vs actual values of your test fixtures. Without this file the calibration will not be accurate.
--- End quote ---

Sorry, I probably wasn't clear: I actually do have the two cal text files available – P071_03.cal and P72_10.cal – I assume that I just have to put these on a floppy, and have it inserted to avoid the error? These two files were included with the software.


--- Quote ---What you need for cal is a cap decade box, inductance decade box, some coils for calibrating the ringer (this is manual and rarely is ever out of spec) and a 20-ohm resistor for the ESR calibration.
--- End quote ---

So the various items you've noted here would be able to be substituted for the "final test box" called for in the LC103 calibration procedure?

Also, would these boxes be okay to use:

cap decade box: Extech 380405
inductance decade box: Electronix Express Inductance Decade Box


--- Quote ---What you can't get is the proprietary current source and leakage current box. I know Sencore had two of them made and I've only briefly looked at them, they are a series of relays/caps/resistors with an IEEE port to talk to the PC to make calibration partially automated.
--- End quote ---

Do you know what the proprietary current source and leakage current box was called? If a schematic exists, maybe it can be recreated – unless that would be cost-prohibitive.


--- Quote ---All the data is sent to the LC103 via the RS232 port on the back, if you look at the menu you will notice it erases all the cal data as one of the first sets so I would not run this since you'll never be able to calibrate the current source.
--- End quote ---

I assume you mean the "calibration reset" menu item? Currently, my unit works well, and I don't plan on running this before being sure I have all the information to safely do so.

From what you've said here, I'm hoping that we can use this software to run some of the calibrations, such as capacitance and inductance, with the right substitute equipment.


--- Quote ---I haven't worked at Sencore in 3+ years so I don't know if any of the old set up still exists, I'm guessing not but it was there when I was walked out the door so maybe they still have it stuff in storage somewhere.
--- End quote ---

Do you have any contacts that are still with the company who'd be willing to share? From what I understand, Sencore has moved on completely from the test equipment field – so this information would be of little value to them I assume.

Thanks again!

Sencoretech:

--- Quote ---Sorry, I probably wasn't clear: I actually do have the two cal text files available – P071_03.cal and P72_10.cal – I assume that I just have to put these on a floppy, and have it inserted to avoid the error? These two files were included with the software.
--- End quote ---

Yeah as long as you can get the files on a floppy you should be fine, you probably want to edit them with the values of your test fixtures.


--- Quote ---So the various items you've noted here would be able to be substituted for the "final test box" called for in the LC103 calibration procedure?

Also, would these boxes be okay to use:

cap decade box: Extech 380405
inductance decade box: Electronix Express Inductance Decade Box
--- End quote ---

No the final test box is just the current source/leakage test box, you'll still need it to do those calibrations, you can do the all the others and write the cal stamp w/o it.  What you have should work fine as long as you know it's accurate.  Sencore had some pretty strict standards and we had all out equipment certified by a lab. 


--- Quote ---Do you know what the proprietary current source and leakage current box was called? If a schematic exists, maybe it can be recreated – unless that would be cost-prohibitive.
--- End quote ---

Yeah there was a schematic for it,  I remember looking at it but it was only a paper one.  Chances are it's toast by now. 


--- Quote ---Do you have any contacts that are still with the company who'd be willing to share? From what I understand, Sencore has moved on completely from the test equipment field – so this information would be of little value to them I assume.

Thanks again!

--- End quote ---

There are two people I would talk to, if they are still there Tory Hoteling, I believe he's still in customer support but he use to be the service manager when they still had the service department,  the other would be Ralph Belding, he is/was the Quality Assurance manager and might know where the equipment is.  I would just call the general number and ask for them,  I haven't talked to either of these guys in years but hopefully they'll help you out, but no guarantees.


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