Agilent 1682AD offer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: mosagepa
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 08:21:38 am
content: Salutations for all test gurus here! (guess there might be a bunch of them!)I was offered for a quite interesting price an Agilent 1682AD for which I'd need some advice or informed opinion. I attach a picture.Details:-SW version is 03.30.0002, I know there are lots of upgraded versions but I read somewhere that if mainframe uses XP SP2 then there might be a limit on the "recentness" of version if I were to upgrade it-There was a thread here that directed an user to some links for the upgrades:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-1680-series-logic-analyzer-system-software-restoration/I don't know whether those links are applicable to my case.From the picture you can see it comes with "only" 2 pod extensions. I don't know whether they are complete or "plug and useable" I mean.My main use for this would be to diagnose/ help to develop or debug FPGA (not very recent series, say Spartans 3/3E and some Cyclone IV or V, some V SOC, and maybe Zynq-related FPGA+SoC designs. And also of course some little uC-based (STM32, AVR, LPC) designs if needed. Not much uP bus/ state analysis stuff, really, although some 8031 tinkering -or maybe old (V3) Coldfires or something I've got developer board lurking around at my lab- would be quite interesting to learn the features...Questions:-Does this unit capacity to do "protocol analysis" (kind of: USB 1.x/ 2.0, SPI, I2C, ...)-Does it need additional HW to be able to do so? Which hardware and what's the usual 2nd hand price tags if any?-Does it need "modules" of any kind for the kind of use I am giving it?-What I can I double-check with the assistance of seller, in order to make sure this unit is properly "equipped"? Apparently it works, but no way I am tying up a full-on digital pulse generator plus GHz digital scope just to follow the "test checks" I've seen detailed in one of the manuals?Finally, I'd like to know from those folks used to this precise model (or series), what the update options would be, meaning both the SW, FW and modules options side of things.I will be reading and gulping all the indications you can give me, and I am sure I will learn a whole lot just by doing that while the unit gets prepaid and formally packed and stuff to be sent!!Kind regards from Madrid!-mosagepa

author: gslick
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 11:10:03 pm
content: If a classic style logic analyzer is suitable for your needs, a 1682AD might be an OK choice, if you can pick one up for a decent price. On the plus side the 168xA/AD series are one of the smaller and lighter fully self contained classic style logic analyzers.Much better to get a 168xAD model than a 168xA model, with 2M sample depth instead of 512K sample depth.A 1682AD model with 4 pods, 64 data channels, 4 clock channels, 68 total channels would often be all that you need if you're working on old school parallel bus microprocessor systems, or something like parallel PCI.A classic style logic analyzer is a poor choice if your main focus is serial bus analysis. For USB analysis FuturePlus made USB 1.x/2.0 preprocessors for use with Agilent logic analyzers. Those are not common in the used market. They probably never sold in large numbers back when they were new, compared to purpose built USB protocol analyzers. A used or new USB protocol analyzer would be a significantly better choice than a USB preprocessor for a logic analyzer.Regarding a 1682AD, it would probably be best to stick with an XP SP2 system recovery installation, and update to version 3.67 of the logic analyzer application. There aren't really any other upgrades that can be done.One thing that is unusual about the 168xA/AD and 169xA/AD series of logic analyzers is that they connect to the PC host through a 1394 connection. The logic analyzer module is common between the two. For some reason one of the more common failures of these series is that something might fail with the 1394 phy on the logic analyzer module. Sometimes listings for 169xA/AD series show up on eBay were instead of the 1394 cable plugging into the front panel port, the photos show the cable snaking inside the chassis to one of the internal 1394 ports on the logic analyzer module. I assume that is because the front panel 1394 port has failed.