HP 16702A Logic Analyzer
Gadgetman
Posts: 2,436
Are these good, extremely good, the sh!te or what?
Just asking as I just scored one for $300 + shipping on eBay...
(It comes with 16550A 100MHz State/500MHz Timing module, 6 pods and cables.)
;-)
Just asking as I just scored one for $300 + shipping on eBay...
(It comes with 16550A 100MHz State/500MHz Timing module, 6 pods and cables.)
;-)
Comments
Score !
May need a new table for it though ;-)
I've been reading up on it a bit and it's making me drool...
96 IO(102 if you also use the timing pins) expandable to the double...
Network port...
Even some emulation functions. (May need another module?)
Decoding all kinds of protocols...
Built-in 3.5" diskette drive... (Good luck that I saved a dozen boxes of unused diskettes from going to the dumpster at the office)
SCSI-II interface.
VGA-out.
Printer port...
With this one, all the small PSUs and heaps of breadboards(d@mn that Erco for spotting so many bargains... ), I should probably build something big and super-complicated, like a TTL CPU or something...
The only thing that sucks is that cheapest shipping was $146... and I'll have to pay 25% VAT on the $446 total.
Today I slotted in another 16550A card to double the logging memory.
(I can use it to double the available inputs, but it came without the cables, and frankly, I don't think any hobbyist needs to be able to log 200 pins at the same time... )
I also slotted in a 16522A card, a 'Pattern generator'...
(This actually arrived a couple of days ago, but I didn't install it before now as there are strict rules when installing stuff in these)
Some may think that 'it's just a pattern generator, good for making a clock signal or something'...
No... It can handle 200 Million 'vectors'/S when running at 200MHz. And yeah, that's on 20 outputs...
Slow it down to 100MHz an it can handle 40 outputs.
It can be scripted...
Oh, and all the cards in the 16702a can be set to trigger at the same time, or on special happenings on one.
Now if I could only get hold of a 16533a(250MHz) or 16534a(500MHz) 2channel storage oscilloscope card for this unit...
(Those cards seems to go for silly money... Or rather, eBay sellers want silly money for them. I may end up buying a 16500 or 16600 frame with one in and tell the seller to dump the rest and just send me the card)
One reason it may be so expensive is of course that these cards can also be linked, so that you may have 2, 4, 6 or 8 inputs with the same timebase.
Strict rules of installation:
Interconnected cards (such as my pair of 16550a) must of course be net to each other.
Start at the bottom slot and fill in upwards.
No gaps allowed.
Actually, the endplate is chamfered so that you need to remove all cards above the one you want to remove before you can pull it out.
The empty slots(at the top) needs to have a blank card installed to keep the airflow right.
I need to get hold of(or make) some flat cables for the 16522a, and possibly a few more pods for it.
(I have 2 x 8pin TTL pods right now. There are 3state TTL/CMOS, an 3.3V TTL pod, ECL pods... )
I'm probably good with just TTL as I can always use level shifters for other voltages.
I'm waiting for a HD50M-to-HD50M SCSI cable so that I can hook up an external CD-ROM.
(I have the latest SW, v2.90 on CD)
Not just because I want to upgrade the OS, but I also have an Aztec PowerMonster 3.5" card (SCSI to CF converter) and a 4GB CF-card which will replace the 20year old HDD sitting in this machine.
Some light reading:
http://www.home.agilent.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/16522706.pdf?&cc=NO&lc=eng
(16522a manual)
http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5988-9023EN.pdf
(16550a manual)
BTW: An iPod and a noise-cancelling headset is a good idea...
For one reason or another, I can't seem to find a working SCSI CD-ROM(or at least, that works with the 16702), so haven' been able to upgrade the OS yet.
Currently I'm working to rebuild an old NEC Multispin 4x CD-ROM with internal 7CD magazine.
(One of the guide taps on the magazine was broken so it had jammed at an angle, and one of the runners for the tray had a broken piece of plastic, too.)
Man, what a nightmare of parts that needs to be in exactly the right orientation to gt it to work.
(The designers decided to skimp on motors and use mechanical switches to 'redistribute' the movement where it was needed.)
A 2000piece jigsaw puzzle is easier...
I have replaced a 'rather noisy' fan in the 16702 with a pair of Noctua fans(and yeah, it cuts the noise a bit).
Also, on friday I received the 'missing' card, a 16534 500MHz Storage(2 x 32K samples) Oscilloscope card, thanks to a sensible eBayer in Japan.
(He only wanted $475 including shipping for it. Half the price of the next cheapest seller)
Haven't tested it, yet, as I don't have any probes for it yet.
(One is on its way right now. Hopefully I'll find another cheap one soon. )
That still leaves a slot free...
But it failed while trasfering the system files from CD-ROM.
Did you succeed in installing, and have any idea about this?
I found in a web page that someone succeeded in installing using CF and Aztec PowerMonster in16702B, but not in 16702A.
There's a YaHoo group for old HP Agilent tools you could join(I recently did) and they'll tell you that it won't work.
It's supposedly possible to do it on a SD-card, with the right adapter.
Another option is to use a SCA-adapter to connect a more modern SCSI HDD.
I'm trying the SCA route right now, but so far, the IBM HDD I tried didn't show up(it may have been 'killed' by a very powerful magnet), and the Compaq 10K RPM model reported a 0 size (I think there may be a bug in the bootstrap ROM in the LA as I also got the same error on some of the CF cards I tried.)
Which cards do you have in yours?
I have tried Sundisk(50MB/s, 8GB), Transcend(x133, 8GB) ad Transcend(x133, 4GB) sold recently, and failed in all the cases.
In fact, I wanted to some slower CF cards to prevent mis-compatibility, but they weren't sold here in Akihabara, Japan.
Thank you for letting me know the Yahoo Groups, I'll join there and seek for the solution.
I hope that the SCA route will be successful.
When and where did you buy the Aztec Power Monster?
I bought it last month from the Artmix website in Japan.
Accordng to the following webpage, Mr. Mark got it at least before May in 2013.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/hp_agilent_equipment/conversations/topics/49134
There may be some firmware versions of the Aztec Monster. And, ours version may be different from that of Mr. Mark.
I want to check them out to the seller in Japan.
There's two res with text of interest on my Aztec:
Under the CF slot: There's a small, white field after he first line, possibly to mark with revision info.
Upper lefthand corner:
On the back there's a small sticker with the number 31907
But most probably the problem is a small difference in the firmware on the 16702A compared to the 16702B
Finally, I suceeded in installing all the system into the 16702A taking a route with the Aztec Power Monster, SDs and CF-SD transfer card by the name of "Extreme CF Adapter" as you can see in the following URL.
<http://blog.double-h.com/archives/51882783.html>
While installing, the following error message occured many times and some warning messages, too, however, the LA continued and completed the process and rebooted automatcally.
"LVM: PV 0 has been returned to vg[0]."
After the reboot, the CD drive happened to fail in seeking once as using a CF card so far. So, I reset the LA and chose the SD card as a boot device to continue the reboot process. After all, the logic analyzer resulted in starting up successfully.
A faster SD card, "Sundisk 32GB" took me about 1 hour to complete the process, while the slow one, "No bland 4GB" took 6 hours.
Now I'm looking for a SD card suited in this use, such as SLC types at more than 10MB/s in random access.
Well, the seller said that the firmware had never been changed.
(I believe I have a SD-CF adapter somewhere already... Just need to find it)
The first, a 18.2GB SCSI3 10K RPM by Compaq, didn't register at first, but I noticed a row of jumper pins...
And the drawing told me that some pins were ID pins, and... one was there to select between Wide and Narrow mode...
After that, it took 45 minutes from boot until the workspace was up and I was messing about with the clock settings.
Never did get the LVM message, or the CD-access problem, though..
Incidentally, the IOOC boot routine is version 153, and there's another version with '038' at the end just after that.
The really good part is that I think I can secure quite a few of those HDDs for my use...
(We used them extensively in RAID5 arrays once... )
The LA will show the original speed using so fast HDD. It's strange for me that those kinds of HDDs have the jumper to select "Wide" or "Narrow" mode. I'll check it out when looking for another HDD.
You seem to have a lot of SCSI HDDs less than 30GB and it sounds very nice. That market has already dried up and even the secondhand ones are really really expensive here in Tokyo.
I'm not sure but think that the wear-leveling process is one of the big difference between HDD and SD and may cause the LVM errors.
And the previous generation servers still used SCSI HDDs...
As we're supposed to 'securely erase' or destroy old HDDs, they've been piling up in a storage room at the office.
(Haven't shipped off any the last decade. Shipping them off to be properly destroyed costs money. And my boss haven't yet bought the electromagnet we need to destroy them or all the old backup tapes... )
I figure that installing HP-UX on top of a HDD that was once part of a striped RAID5 array makes the old contents pretty much irretrievable...
Incidentally, it was only that 18.2GB HDD I found with a clearly marked Wide/Narrow jumper. Most of the others I tried didn't have jumpers at all.
Maybe they're doing some sort of autosense?
I also hope to test out some 15K HDDs, soon... Can't hurt, can it?
(Some of those also has pretty big caches built-in)
The wear-leveling process is supposed to be completely transparent for the system it's installed in.
I think I did get a few of the LVM messages when I was trying to use CF-cards, though.