AE#54 HP 54200A Digital Oscilloscope Teardown
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- This was supposed to be a repair, but because of lack of schematics, block diagrams and lots of unidentified ICs it ended up being a teardown only. Let me know if you can spot the defect.
Get your hands on an HP 54645D if you want to see a vintage (mid 90s) scope with a well thought out intuitive user interface.
It has the first generation Megazoom ASIC and is still useful today as long as you don't need more than 100 MHz bandwidth.
My first digital oscilloscope for the home shop purchased in 1999. Man, it was huge heavy noisy beast. And that user interface was just painful.
Buen video.
una consulta se puede usar ese osciloscopio para reparar radios de comunicación ?
Hi Arti!
I really like your videos. And here, I maybe I can help you. You can test the cards without an extender card, as HP has one built in. You see it behind the bezel (or in front of the power supply board).Boards just plug in there and work.
I do have a HP1631D logic analyzer that looks exactly the same as your scope. But still isn't working (CPU board problem).
And I guess, you will find schematics for the analog board if you look for the schematics of a HP1631D as this LA also does have a analog input.
Hop this helps and keep on make those nice and friendly videos.
I should have described the buil-in "extender card" better:
It is on the edge of the backplane, accessible from the top of your HP. Card will stick out upwards, super easy to access.
I remember these early HP oscilloscopes and absolutely hated them. The worst UI very slow and loud. Just overall painful to use. It the reason why most of us old engineers and technicians hated DSO’s back in the day and preferred analog oscilloscopes.
You sure have just left it on the shelf this is one won’t even want to save from recycling as had the opportunity to get a couple, took the Tektronix analog scopes and a mainframe scope left the HP’s behind. Now HP logic analyzers were the best during that time.
Good video.
A question: Can this oscilloscope be used to repair communication radios?
Xdevs has a hp part number conversion list, has helped me in the past to identify what the parts were whilst fixing something.
Even when watched in 1080p the picture looks quite soft and fuzzy. Are you sure that your camera is actually recording in full HD ? It looks more like SD to me. BTW, I though that the fan in my Rigol DS1054Z scope was noisy, but it's completely silent compared to this HP scope !
Ever had to replace that battery? My 54200A sometimes gives a hardware failure error on powerup along with an error about ram contents. Not one mention of a battery anywhere in the docs or forums. Nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price of a replacement!
Back in the late 80s, in the beginning of my career as a repair engineer, I had to use a similar type of "digitizing Oscilloscope".
This may sound rude, but I still have a deep hate for this type of Scopes and throwing it into the bin is no loss to the world.
I agree, it wasn't a very good instrument and it besmirched the HP name
Yep I hated theses with a passion.
3.9 V battery delivering 3.7 V (unloaded) definately is too low. Under load voltage collapses. Replacing it may solve the problem.
I think that was the first digital scope I bought used years ago. Really did not like the Ui. Very slow and awkward to us. Must have knobs..
I see one for sale on eBay for $28.00 parts only, doesn't power on.
Repairus interruptus? Can't you build a ribbon cable extender for debug purposes???
You can't just build a cable because those connectors don't come in an IDC flavor. You'd have to have boards made. That along with the lengthy process of identifying the circuit components makes this a task I'm unwilling to tackle. But lmk if you want to give it a try yourself. Lots of fun to be had.
Chances are that HP have test rigs built specially for the boards inside. Very unfriendly to home engineers. I hated HP manuals when I was on the bench. Teltronix were a dream, just like their hardware. HP hardware is beautifully built, but difficult to work on. The HP 180C scope is another little sod to work on !
Yes the do you need a HP 5005B, signature multimeter and they do have extender cards and test sequence you have to follow. I needed one to isolate a issue on a old hp spectrum analyzer to a defective chip on the digital board and a extender card.
better this scope or a classic tektronix 468?
My vote goes to the 468.
What is the smallest v/DIV that this hp can do?
The manual says 40 mV/Div
Typical HP, make it look nice, put the loudest fan they can find on it, then get the software made by the designers, who are intimately familiar with the hardware, and used to the odd behaviours, and then cram it into the available ROM.
Sounds like someoine else May be had a problem with making head or tails of HP manuals. A nightmare when compared to Tektronics, but that is only up to 1982 when I left the bench. It May have improved since then. Marconi werent much better. Tektronix were a dream to read and work on, BEAUTIFUL !