Hi Thanks for the heads up !!
It almost sounds like they are doing some sort of “use flash as eeprom” trick and not quite getting it right. Maybe updating a “how many times turned on” counter in that memory space. Bob > On Jun 7, 2016, at 5:22 PM, Skip Withrow <skip.with...@gmail.com> wrote: > > We recently had a customer that purchased an FEI FE-5650A (basically a > repackage version of the FE-5680A) and reported that it worked for several > hours, then died. We promptly sent another unit, and he reported that it > died as well. He had nothing but power hooked to the unit. > > On return of the first unit, it was examined and found to have corrupted > code. The corrupted code problem was thought to be associated with doing > bad things to the serial port (like framing errors), and we still believe > this to be the case. However, the customer said only power was connected > to the unit. > > I was asking some questions about how he was powering the unit, when he > said he turned on the power supply (a large HP variable supply) and turned > the voltage up to +15V (our 5650's are single supply). Ah hah, slowly > ramping the voltage up on these oscillators appears to be a no no. > > The second oscillator has now been examined and it too was confirmed to > have corrupted code. So, the word of warning is - DO NOT slowly ramp the > supply voltage of FE-5680A and FE-5650A oscillators. I can't say what > slowly is, but this guy was good at killing them. If I get some time I may > try to repeat the results. > > My advice was to set the supply at 15V and just turn it off and on. I have > not heard from him since. > > If anyone out there has a 5680A or 5650A that does not lock, the code issue > is very likely the problem. I have seen several 5680 units as well as a > few 5650 units with this problem. The good news is that they can be > fixed. I would happily do this for any time-nut that has one if return > postage is included with the unit. The bad news is that we don't know the > nature of the code problem that trashes the software (stack overflow, error > handling routine, etc.) so units can only be restored to their original > condition that still has the bug in the code. > > Otherwise, the 5650 and 5680 are great values to get rubidium performance > at very reasonable prices. I have 1000's of hours on them and 100's of > power cycles, with a lot of serial port use, so if treated correctly they > are reliable units. > > Regards, > Skip Withrow > RDR Electronics, Inc. > > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=oa-2322-b> > Virus-free > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=oa-2322-b> > <#DDB4FAA8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
