Firmware for older HP spectrum analyzers?

Does anyone know of a source of firmware updates (on EEPROMs) for older HP spectrum analyzers, such as the 8594EM? Or even a list of what bugs were fixed and featured added with various versions? We have some older test equipment like this around the shop, and I'm curious as to what else might be possible with these units... in many ways they're a lot more "interesting" than the newer analyzers which are just big Windows boxes.

Thanks,

---Joel

Reply to
Joel Koltner
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Hi Joel, for no longer supported instruments, try to contact Dave Cunningham at Agilent.

His e-mail address is:

snipped-for-privacy@agilent.com

I did it for my HP8711A network analyzer, and he supplied me the LIF image of the upgrade disks for the latest version.

He is good fellow (if he can get it), he will help you for sure.

Have a great day.

Massimo

Reply to
Max65

Ask there:

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Jorgen dj0ud

Reply to
Jorgen Lund-Nielsen

Joel,

I have an 8594EM (with tracking generator and oven stabilised frequency counter), so I would be interested in what you discover. If I remember rightly the 8594EM was modified at some point to add a parallel printer port interface instead of using HPIB printing. Mine was made just before this change.

Earlier this year I repaired my 8753A vector network analyzer which had a defective eprom and gave a checksum error on startup. This was done by scanning the eproms for any bits which changed with small variations in supply voltage. I flipped a suspicious bit and restored correct operation. Later I was able to compare the eprom dump files with those from another 8753A owner and confirm their correctness.

This was all described in sci.electronics.repair.

If anyone wants a copy of the 8753A dump files I would be happy to send them.

John

Reply to
jrwalliker

I assume you've already checked the Agilent website. (Agilent got the instrument divisions when HP split up a few years back.)

You might also check ftp://ftp.agilent.com/pub/manuals/ - that's where Agilent posts equipment manuals that it hasn't yet gotten around posting to its "official" pages.

A couple other sites you might try checking are

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and
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The first is a site for collectors of HP and Agilent test gear. The second focuses on ham radio, but it has some stuff on HP products relevant to ham radio, such as 'scopes, signal generators and spectrum analyzers.

All three are kind of long shots, but you don't have anything to lose, do you?

HTH.

Bob Pownall

Reply to
Bob Pownall

Thanks to everyone for all the responses -- you've given me some good leads to follow.

EPROMs... boy, that brings back memories... I haven't used in over a decade! Hmm... too bad I told my UniPro and SuperPro years ago now! I might still have one of those ART Electronics serial-port interfaced programmers back at my parents house, but I suspect these days it's best -- if I can find an electronic copy of the ROMs -- to just have someone who still burns EPROMs regularly as a service do it.

---Joel

Reply to
Joel Koltner

Answering part of my own question here: With some help for Agilent, I found this web page:

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...which lists the firmware versions for all the 8590EM series instruments. Interestingly, there were only 4 and it turns out I do have the last one listed (96.07.09).

Thanks again to everyone for the help,

---Joel

Reply to
Joel Koltner

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