Re: battery chargers, again

It was the 34401A. The VF display driver kicked horrible spikes out the input connectors. They fixed the firmware to fudge it out on the lower AC voltage ranges.

Hook a scope to your 34410A input, one side against ground maybe, and see what you see.

Keithley got so annoyed with me that they sent three 2001's to replace the Chinese junk.

John

The topper was a rented and I might add, very pricey, Agilent spectrum analyzer. Did EMC debug at a client, rolled up my sleeves and by afternoon had the unit shipshape. Or so I thought. Fired up the analyzer, and many nasty spikes in the 250MHz region were still there. Bit my lips so no cussing would slip out. How is this possible ...? Turned off unit under test, spikes still there. Hurumph! Turned out they emerged from the analyzer display. I had to go to a hardware store there, buy some sort of chicken coop fencing and drape that over the analyzer's face. Turned DUT back on, total silence. Pathetic. I should have take a photo and sent it to Carly back then.

Yup. I can remember a GenRad portable tester that I took into the Motorola GED EMI lab... crap emitting out the face of the CRT :-( ...Jim Thompson

I thought Agilent had split from HP before Carly took over.

Many years ago a rep wanted me to look at a new line of spectrum analyzers. He set one up connected to an output directional coupler on a tube in the magnetron line at WE's plant and got a fine looking spectrum on the screen. I reached over and disconnected the co-ax from the coupler. The display on the screen didn't change at all! I asked the rep: "Which one of these ten tubes under test are we looking at."

Yeah, but she dunnit:

Quote "Although the decision to spin-off the company's technical equipment division predated her arrival, one of her first major responsibilities as chief executive was overseeing the successful separation of the unit into the standalone Agilent Technologies."

All I can say is that I like the lab gear they made before the split a lot better.

Did he have it in some sort of digital phosphor mode?

The styling has gotten a little gay

Not that there's anything wrong with that..

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Well, it is an audio analyzer.

John

Maybe the guys who did the screen contents are Chinese. They love those bonbon colors. Same in some other Asian countries. When it's dark in here and my Instek scope runs with all four channels on you could think you are in a circus or candy store. The on buttons are brightly lit, somehow they must have sourced custom LEDs in matching bonbon colors.

The colors themselves are almost the same as the color codes that Tek uses (in very small quantity relatively speaking) for their channel numbers (eg. TPS2024) but for Tek Yellow is 1, Blue is 2, Red is 3. Maybe that's where the creativity comes in.. the mapping.