Category Archives: Oscilloscopes

Oscilloscopes

HP 54750 Digitizing Oscilloscope: a CARE package, and a scratched disc

2 Comments

Faster than expected I got the spare power supply from the US, it is in good shape, not dusty or anything. Well packaged.

First, I studied the circuit and the burned/unreadable diodes, because I will be trying to repair the defective supply later, just to have a spare. The diodes are 3.9 V and 11 V Zener diodes, fair enough.

Also dissected some special thermal fuse protected resistors, 22 Ohm, about 5 Watts, and a 130 degC thermal fuse in a ceramic package, an inrush current protector.

Probably going to replace these with discrete 22 Ohm resistors and thermal fuses. Actually, both the thermal fuses and the resistors were shot.

After fitting the power supply, some issues. The instrument starts up, and the screen initializes, showing a gray square, but nothing else. It just doesn’t boot up. Fiddling around a bit, I thought that maybe the battery protected memory got corrupted, or some other issue, so I set the dip switch to force-update and rom-unprotect, and started it twice, without actually loading firmware, but hoping that it would set some bytes or something to make the machine start at least. And it did. Also took out the video and cpu cards, reset all connectors. But finally I believe it was just some memory hickup.

Accidentally, found a stamp – made in 1996 – fits the datecode of the semiconductors.

The machine has been on for quite a while, no wonder the power supply eventually gave in. For precision timebase and jitter measurements, it is recommended to leave these instrument always on, or run it several hours before the critical test (3 picoseconds/div resolution, we are talking about mm distances at the speed of light…).

The firmware is a bit dated, and with the startup issues (that actually completely resolved once it started), I decided to update the firmware. Easy work with a 3.5 inch disc. Trying and trying – always getting read errors on my USB 3.5 floppy drive. EEE??? Some inspection – there is a big scratch in the disc.

I had been harsh to this disc, the only one in my possession in Japan, by storing it in a box with electronic parts and all kinds of things and dirt could easily get into the disc. In the late 80s, I kept these discs in a specially design box, etc.

Now, where to get such a disc it the city of Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan? A quick ride to the recycle store (2nd hand store) – no discs for sale, but I found an old network card, including an unused driver disc! 200 yen!

=”490″ class=”alignnone size-large wp-image-4682″ />

The disc is working just fine, and the update proceeded with no problem – version 7.12.

Final critical tests of the 54751A plug in – the samplers are working great, no issues at all!

The new firmware disc, I will keep it in a well sealed ZIP bag, for later use!

Oscilloscopes

HP 54750A Digitizing Scope: it ain’t work with no power

1 Comment

At the famous Yahoo auction, in Japan, I found this great instrument, a 54750A with a 54751A plugin. This is no less than a 20 GHz bandwidth(!!) sampling scope. I used to own one before, but have sold it some years back. At the time of introduction, these were the top instruments, in the 1995 to 2000 years. Still today, a 20 GHz scope doesn’t come cheap!

Normal issues with such unknown, non-working units are broken plug-ins, shot samplers, or other various difficult to fix issues. The samplers tolerate no ESD, and no more than 2 Volts! So please don’t let just any kid play with it. Not sure what happened at some companies in the past, when the engineer shot the 10 kUSD plug in… the whole unit traded for about 50 kUSD at the time, not too long ago.

This unit, it just won’t power up at all. No sign of any activity. So I took out the plugin, and started troubleshooting. The power supply.

These supplies were purchased from YOKOGAWA, a really high end supplier, and there are protection circuits for all voltages, including interlocks for the fans! But this unit has no need for any interlocks, because there is absolutely no power.

A little bit of examination shows discoloration and defective diodes.

The diodes overheated, because they are short. These are primary side diodes.

Also one of the transistors around this area of the supply failed. A 2SC3866 high voltage transistor, nothing too special, but none at hand at the moment!

Some analysis of the circuit – it is clear that this is the startup (auxiliary) power supply that will start up the main power supply. Also the input current limiting resistors (2 units that have 22 Ohm and a 130 degC thermal fuse each) are blown, no wonder that there is no action at all.

So I tried to connect an external supply, but there seem to be some other functions and details, so I can’t get the unit to start up. At least the red LED that indicates the auxiliary power, it is lit. But nothing else. Better not to proceed without schematics – which aren’t available.

So I have two options – wait to be able to go to Germany again, where I have a 54720A mainframe that has the same supply, and do some tests and investigations on that supply, or, see if there is a spare supply available somewhere. Kindly enough, a US enterprise offered a spare for USD 25, a great price!!! Plus 70 USD shipping to Japan…. Well, I purchased it and now waiting.

The 54751A module – even if the mainframe won’t work again, it is great find. These usually go for USD 1.5k, working condition. And I do have spare samplers back in Germany, in case it is a damaged unit (but as the mainframe has a power supply failure, I suspect that the module is fine, and that the unit was taken out of service because of the non-working power supply).

Some current offers…