Randy, I put together a quick script for testing your connection. I have emailed it to you but attached it here for others if needed. It will be easier than running the other program.
Todd On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 9:00 AM, Dr. Frank <frank.stellm...@freenet.de> wrote: > Randy, > > I doubt, that your hp unit is defective, as it might work under certain > circumstances, and also the FW version 8.2 vs. 9.2 will not make any > difference, as only a few pair of bytes are different. All versions of the > A5 board are designed to be completely interchangeable over all versions of > 3458A instruments. > > I have another theory, which deals with the hardware version difference > between the agilent and the hp unit. > > Your agilent unit might already have the 66547, full SMD board for A5, > whereas the hp will for sure have one of the old 66505/515, through- hole > boards, Rev A, B, or C. Illya has all of them pictured in his first 3458A > repair blog. > > All the old versions (A, B, C) have GPIB bus transceivers, TI 75ALS160 > for the data bus, and NS 75161 for the handshake signals. > The new SMD board has TI 75ALS160 / TI 75ALS161, instead. > > So, the handshake bus uses a different logic family for the new board, and > therefore, the logic levels / immunity might be slightly different. > > My hp3458A has got the REV C A5 board, and it's from 2000. > Since 2009, I run a similar datalogging program for capturing LTZ1000 > output versus time, each 4 seconds, on an old PC with WIN98, Turbo Pascal, > an XT bus GPIB card from CEC, with the NEC chip. > > This program and hardware ran properly for years, (decades), until more > and more errors during the 24h acquisition runs occured, vaguely reminding > me of your trouble. > The output values were always correct, but frequently, 10sec time-outs > ocurred, giving zero readings in the datalog. This time-out is obviously > related to the handshaking mechanism. > Finally, I found out, that the old ATX PSU was failing, especially its > input snubber network was gone defect, which probably created big EMC > spikes. > After replacing the PSU, all these errors vanished completely. > > My conclusion was, that the GPIB bus is susceptible to such EMC > disturbances, although it's solid TTL logic. > As obviously the handshake signals were affected only, their higher > susceptibility to disturbances may be caused by the difference in the logic > family of the transceiver IC. The agilent 3458A might be more tolerant to > that, having the ALS161 version, instead. > > So you might also look for EMC problems in your lab, like SMPS, LED lamps, > or a defective PC power supply. > > Maybe, these Prologix adaptors (clones?) have critical logic levels, > especially on the handshake bus, or an improper ground. > You might search for these signal problems directly on the GPIB cable. > > Frank > > _______________________________________________ > volt-nuts mailing list -- volt-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/m > ailman/listinfo/volt-nuts > and follow the instructions there. >
HP3458A_Simple_Test_V1.00.488
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