Subject: HP 1631D logic analyzer, some basic questions:

From: Harvey White <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed Jun 11 21:46:23 2003

I've just gotten one, without the instruction manual, of course.  

Seems that it needs to save to HP-IB instruments and so forth, also
can us HP-IL....

I'll have to see if I can find data on HP-IL, might be worth rolling
an interface for it, or just stick to the IEEE-488....

Question:  Is this model supposed to be able to remember setups
between sessions, or does it lose its memory when the power goes off?

Kinda silly for HP to design it like that, so I wonder if there's not
a backup battery that's down.

Harvey

[email-masked]

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From: Joe <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Jun 12 07:28:24 2003

>an interface for it, or just stick to the IEEE-488....

  Stick to 488, it's a lot easier to use and a lot easier to find. You need
a special IC for the IL interface and it hasn't been available for a LONG
time. There are some good docs available the describe the IL systems but
even those are mostly collectors items now.  

>a backup battery that's down.

     I THINK there is. I used to have a 1630 but it's been a LONG time
since I've worked on it.

     Joe

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From: "J.C. Wren" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu Jun 12 07:44:01 2003

You can save the current session, but the base unit (without a mass storage 
device attached via 488) only saves the current setup.  It's on the System 
screen, the option at or very near the bottom.  

	I'd have to dig up my service manual for my 1630, but I believe they use 
EEPROM for backup.  There's a disk drive available, the 9122C, if you can 
find them (not exceedingly rare, maybe 1 or 2 show up on eBay every 4 
months).  They tend to go for around $150 last time I checked.

	I've thought it would be nice to have a 9122C emulator for the PC.  I have a 
488 PCI card (National makes them), and I think with a little software, it 
could be a mass storage device.  That'd be pretty neat to have a rack of 
virtual diskettes to store setup configs based on projects and such.

	--John

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Thu Jun 12 18:46:00 2003

> an interface for it, or just stick to the IEEE-488....

HPIL is logically a bit-serial version of HPIB (IEEE-488), but physically 
it's very different -- it's a loop, not a bus and all devices on the loop 
are transformer-coupled...

There is an HP custom chip -- the 1LB3 -- that is an HPIL interface 
circuit. It handles the talker/listener/controller functions. This chip 
is not total unobtainium, but it is quite hard to find -- people who have 
a few (like myself) don't want to give them up :-). The special pulse 
transformers (HP made a little DIL module containing the 3 transformers 
needed for a loop connection) are much harder to find, though.

There are 3 manuals you'll find useful. One is the HPIL specification, 
which includes enough detail to design an interface from scratch not 
using the HP parts. The second is the 1LB3 data sheet. The third is the 
user manual for the 82166C (must be C) kit. This was a kit to design HPIL 
interaces, and included 4 1LB3 chips, 4 transformer units, 2 
microcontrollers (programmed with code to implement a parallel I/O 
device), the necessary passive components, and documentation. The user 
manual gives an example circuit for the 1LB3, showing how to connect it 
to the transformer assembly, etc.

These manuals are on the MoHPC CD-ROM set (look at 
http://www.hpmuseum.org/ and follow the links). This is a set of 7 
CD-ROMs (or a DVD-ROM I think) which contain pdf files of scanned images 
of HP calculator (and related products) manuals. If you have a system 
capable of reading pdf files, and you're interested in HP calculators, 
you need these disks. I think they cost me $42 for the 7 CDs, including 
postage to England, which I regard as a total bargain. The first manual I 
looked at made it work the cost! Of course I still prefer printed manuals 
(and actually, I have the HPIL docs as original HP manuals), but these 
CDs are better than nothing. A lot better than nothing.

Although in your case it might be simpler just to stick to the HPIB port :-).

-tony