Looking for the Tek 465 of Logic Analysers

[Glen Slick]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Ken Seefried <seefriek at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the input everyone.  In summary, I got recommendations for:
>
> - HP 16500C (lesser a 16500B, but not a 16500A) (mainframe)
> - HP 16700/16900/17500 (mainframe, bigger-faster-stronger, still pretty
> expensive, can use 16500 cards)
> - HP 166x or 167x (portable, modern, look for hard drive)

Some information and personal opinions I'll add:

If you go for a 16500B, you should find one with the optional Ethernet
interface installed. Remote control and data transfer over TCP/IP in
general may be much easier to set up than using GPIB, unless you
already have gear setup for that. With the optional Ethernet interface
the only practical difference between the 16500B and the 16500C is
that you can use common and cheap PS/2 keyboards and mice with the
16500C while you need to find more rare and expensive HP-HIL keyboards
and mice for the 16500B. Both are perfectly usable with neither a
keyboard nor mouse. The downside of a 16500 series is that the value
of the bare mainframe itself is often less than the cost to ship one.
(Hey Ian if you ever want to move up to a 16500B I have some local to
you...)

For the 16700 series if you want a self contained unit with built-in
display you need a 16702A or 16702B. The built-in LCD display is only
800x600. You can use an external monitor up to 1280x1024, or 1600x1200
with Option 003 installed. If you don't need a portable self contained
unit and have the room to set up an external monitor a 16700A or
16700B should be cheaper than a 16702A or 16702B, plus you never have
to worry about a display failing. One of the main differences between
the 16700A/16702A and the 16700B/16702B is that the B version has a
built-in SCSI CD-ROM, which comes in handy if you need to reload the
system software. Otherwise you need to find a standard external SCSI
CD-ROM drive. The 16520/16521 pattern gen modules and the
16530/16531/16532 scope modules are not supported by the 16700 series.
You need 16522 or 16720 pattern gen modules and 16533/16534 scope
modules. The 16700 series run on top of HP-UX 10.20.  Once you factor
in the shipping costs a 16700 series system might not be significantly
more expensive that a 16500 series system.

One limitation of the 1660A and 1660E series is the 4K sample depth.
Depending on your application that may be a major limitation. The max
sample depth varies on the 1670 series. I believe 64K and optionally
512K on the 1670A series, 64K and optionally 1M on the 1670D series,
1M on the 1670E series, and 64K and optionally 256K or 2M on the 1670G
series. The E and G series have color LCD displays. The older series
have monochrome CRT displays.

The 16900 series are much more recent and currently a lot more
expensive. An empty 16700A might be under $100 before shipping while
an empty 16900A may be at least $500 before shipping. No 16500 series
modules are supported by the 16900 series. The minimum supported 16700
series modules are the 16740A and higher, and the 16720A pattern gen
which still sells for a premium. The 16900 series are based on Windows
XP, or maybe Windows 7 on never mainframes.

The good thing with all of these HP / Agilent analyzers is that all of
the state/timing modules from the 16510 up through the 16752 and the
1650/1660/1670 series use the same 40-pin POD breakout lead sets.
Starting with the 16753 modules they switched to the 90-pin POD
connectors and the breakout lead sets for those are crazy expensive.