HP Agilent 1652B Logic Analyzer/Scope

[[email protected]]

Hello,

I'm in the market for an oscilloscope and I might have the option to
get a used Agilent 1652B for under $100 USD as part of a set of items
a local university is getting rid of. I'm a lot more comfortable with
analog scopes, but any reasonably good 100Mhz dual channel scope for
under 100 dollars seems like a deal that is hard to pass up.

I have a few questions though:

Considering the age of the technology, will this scope work as well as
a good analog scope (Agilent tells me that it was discontinued in
1994, support ended in 1999)?

Can I use standard probes or do I need something special for this
scope?

How hard is it to find/make the probe modules for the logic analyzer?

In case I don't get the boot disk with the scope, is there any source
anyone can think of for it? I've googled and asked Agilent with no
good results, I'm still awaiting word from the university about
whether it has the boot disk but the people in charge of selling the
scope are having a difficult time of figuring out whether there is a
disk with it and the professor who used it is gone from the university
so I can't ask him.

Here's the datasheet for the product:

http://www.valuetronics.com/vt/asse...1652B_1653B.PDF

Thanks for any info,
Seth

 

[Mike Harrison]

Hello,

I'm in the market for an oscilloscope and I might have the option to
get a used Agilent 1652B for under $100 USD as part of a set of items
a local university is getting rid of. I'm a lot more comfortable with
analog scopes, but any reasonably good 100Mhz dual channel scope for
under 100 dollars seems like a deal that is hard to pass up.

I have a few questions though:

Considering the age of the technology, will this scope work as well as
a good analog scope (Agilent tells me that it was discontinued in
1994, support ended in 1999)?

Probably not - update speed likely to be sluggish and no intensity information. Howeve a digital
scope is always good to have - you may just need to get an analogue one as well.

Can I use standard probes or do I need something special for this
scope?
Yes.

How hard is it to find/make the probe modules for the logic analyzer?

Not too hard to make if you don't need full performance - the leads have a 90K (ISTR) resistor at
the probe end. Keep an eye on ebay for original leads, as they are much nicer to use - very
flexible.

In case I don't get the boot disk with the scope, is there any source
anyone can think of for it? I've googled and asked Agilent with no
good results, I'm still awaiting word from the university about
whether it has the boot disk but the people in charge of selling the
scope are having a difficult time of figuring out whether there is a
disk with it and the professor who used it is gone from the university
so I can't ask him.

There are some helpful agilent people on the Agilent scope forum,
http://forums.tm.agilent.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=19
and there are enough of these out there that someone should be able to find one. I think there
exists some PC software to create/format these discs. Note they are 720K so you need to find the
right sort of blanks. These can be found from people who supply to retro computer and music
equipment people.