Advantest optical power meter manuals (e.g. TQ8210) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2013, 10:27:24 pm
content: Hi folks,In a fit of what I'll describe as absolute insanity, I bought this on Ebay:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Advantest-TQ8210-Optical-Power-Meter-with-Sensors-Faulty-Spares-Only-/121212497970?ViewItem=&item=121212497970&nma=true&si=QkcJRniV41bfAYt5mSA9OBXRleI%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557It's an Advantest TQ8210 optical power meter (or rather two of them). Both base units are reported to have died of battery leakage (given that the batteries are NiCd, I'll bet it's the usual "black wire disease" problem). I figured £30 was worth it for the three optical power sensors alone :-)My plan of action is to strip them down, clean with white spirit vinegar to neutralise the electrolyte, scrub with isopropyl and ultrasonic clean to get rid of the remaining crud, then rebuild any broken tracks (assuming their paths can be traced out).I have to confess, I'm also curious how the meters work. From past experience, Advantest service manuals are quite detailed, if you can find them...Does anyone happen to have a copy of the service manual for the TQ8210 or any other Advantest optical power measurement kit (e.g. the TQ8215 Optical Power Multimeter)?Data on the heads would be very nice to have too -- the ones I have (or will soon have) are TQ82017, TQ82015 and Q82018A.Thanks,Phil.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2013, 02:24:21 am
content: Have you tried contacting Advantest to get a manual. It is worth a shot.

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2013, 09:16:18 am
content: Yep, already tried that. Advantest sold their optical test product line to ADC (aka ADCMT) who don't have the service manuals, just the user manuals.At this point I have one meter in indeterminate condition (needs a new sensor socket) and one which reads "overload" on all ranges. Tracing the circuit is frustrating to say the least; the board layout is only two layers but the track layout is horrible! Very difficult to follow tracks around the various parts.

author: philpem
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 23, 2013, 02:20:52 am
content: ADC (Advantest's T&M arm) wouldn't say a thing other than "manuals are not for customer distribution". They passed me onto Rohde & Schwarz, who stated the same thing but a bit more clearly -- ADC make service data available to R&S under a non-disclosure agreement. They may be allowed to acknowledge that "certain manuals" exist, but not provide any details as to their contents. TL/DR, there's no way I'm getting a service manual for this or any other ADCMT or Advantest equipment.(testgear manufacturer shitlist now reads: ADCMT / Advantest, SRS -- in SRS's case because of their "if you aren't the original purchaser, we won't help you" policy)It turns out one of my meters is fairly completely pooched. The highest-gain signal range works OK, but as soon as the meter selects a lower-gain range (e.g. /10 nW) the meter acts like an integrator -- the indicated reading creeps up to full scale, then the display reads "1 " (overload). The bargraph follows the indicator. I'd be interested in any ideas people might have for fixing this one, though I may desolder everything, scan the PCBs and derive a schematic set. "Just because I can".The second meter had two ruined (corroded) switches, a few damaged tracks and a ruined sensor head connector. I've acquired a new head connector (it's a standard part, a Hirose HR10A 12-position panel mount push-lock circular socket) and will be looking to solder that together this weekend. In the meantime, I've robbed the connector and switches from the dead unit and pieced together something vaguely resembling a working optical power meterMy "thin" optical sensor head is reading zero, so that needs looking at, but the other two seem to work fine (or as fine as can be expected when you feed an IR laser sensor light from a cheap red laser pointer...) Plan of action is:* Put the new connector on the backplate, solder wires, install in LPM* Pick the cleanest / most intact case plastics and other cosmetic parts, make a nice looking meter from that.* Final clean up, get the last of the gunk off the brass threaded inserts, then reassemble the meter* Fix the "thin" sensor or find another (probably need to set up an ebay watch for Advantest LPM sensors which work with this meter)And for later:* Reverse engineer the analog board, figure out if there's any reasonable way to use these sensors on a custom test rig (academic point more than anything)