thanks joe, and to the other couple of people who responded privately. i need to figure out how much of a project i want this to be, and how it ranks against all the other projects that i also don't have time for. :-)
i have the full users manual (two copies!), but i don't have anything else that speaks GPIB. i'll play with some of the front panel commands you've suggested, while i think about what to do. thanks! paul j. l. trantham wrote: > Paul, > > First, the meter is worth something if nothing other than parts. It is > quite a meter and you should at least open it up and see what it might take > to get it operational again. I am sure there are folks on this list > (including me) that would love to have the meter if you want to part with > it. > > It is still in production, still supported and you can get the manuals from > the Agilent website. The assembly level repair manual should be able to > give you an idea of where the problem is. The CLIP is available and you > might be able to find the specific part (or parts) that need replacing. > > I don't know of a way to get the serial number if there is no sticker on the > back. You can open it and look at the date codes on the chips, etc., and > get an idea of when it was manufactured. > > You can enter some queries from the front panel to get some other > information. I can't remember what they all are but if they end in a '?', > it will return the data. Things like 'OPT?' will tell what options are > installed, '1' being extended memory and '2' being the high stability > reference. You can tell how many times it was CAL'd, what version of > firmware it has, etc. I think version 9 is the latest and version 8 is 'out > there' somewhere, IIRC. If you just start with shift A and scroll down the > list, you can see what questions you can ask. > > Agilent offers a 'repair service' for about $1900 (IIRC) that will put it > back in operational condition, up to specs, and with a fresh calibration. > However, I don't know if that service requires a serial number or not. > > There is a guy at the Agilent calibration center in Colorado, Gary Bierman, > and he is 'the man' when it comes to that meter. I have spoken with him in > the past about other 3458A questions and he was most helpful. I suspect he > would be more than willing to talk to you about the meter and what it might > take to get it up and running. > > I think his contact information is in the archives if you would like to > pursue that. > > Good luck. > > Joe > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Paul Fox > Sent: Monday, October 15, 2012 9:50 AM > To: Discussion of precise voltage measurement > Subject: [volt-nuts] hp 3458a advice > > hi -- > > i'm not a volt-nuts regular, and not even a precision measurement nut > at all, but given past discussion in the list archives, i think you > folks might be able to help. > > i was recently given an HP 3458a multimeter. the donor thought it > worked when he last used it, but that was quite a long time ago, and i > think it was stored in an attic for some time, so i'm not too > surprised that it now doesn't pass self tests. :-/ he mainly wanted > it out of his house, along with a bunch of other vintage (sadly mostly > non-working) equipment he'd accumulated over the years. > > the self-test error is: > ERRSTR 204, "Hardware Failure -- Flatness DAC Convergence: 198" > > judging from past list traffic, repairs on these units are > expensive, and it would still need recalibration to be useful, and > there are may be other parts (eeproms?) that may not be good > any more. i'm not really interested in pursuing any of this > myself. > > what's worse is that the unit doesn't have a serial number. (i assume > the s/n would normally be obvious on the rear of the unit.) it bears a > sticker on the back that says "MTG PROTO 27". i think the unit came > from a place that themselves produced reference standards, and they > may have gotten a very early model from HP to work with. that's > conjecture. i haven't opened the unit, so i don't know if there are > other clues to its age inside. > > so: is this machine useful to anyone? given the error message above, > are there any measurements at all that it might still get correct, in > it's current state? > > paul > =--------------------- > paul fox, [email protected] (arlington, ma, where it's 63.1 degrees) > > _______________________________________________ > volt-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > > > _______________________________________________ > volt-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts > and follow the instructions there. =--------------------- paul fox, [email protected] (arlington, ma, where it's 48.4 degrees) _______________________________________________ volt-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts and follow the instructions there.
