Agilent 33521 Teardown - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 06:41:32 am
content: I scored this beauty today... local biochem lab closed. i was hunting for some benches... but picked this up instead... no i'm not gonna tell you what i gave for it because you'll cry...oh, all right, but i'll camouflage it a bit so it doesn't hit too hard : its a 3 digit positive integer with the leading digit being a 1.... the same number could also mean '4' if the base was binary...30Mhz, 250Ms/s arb generator. This thing is killer.But enough sniffin : time to rip it apartfirst image : bottom of the machine. Immediately clear is the tin can that holds the output amplifier. i ould not pry it open it seems to be soldered to the PCB ... Above that is the footprint of a fat BGA device and a bit higher we find a QFN package. bottomm right sits a plug-in board with obviously another big BGA ...Second Image : that plug in board removed. Jep. the brains of the outfit. An ARM based Spear 600 monster. Clearly thi board has other purposes as there is room for another big monster BGA that is unpopulated. The chip bottom right is a Vitesse Ethernet Phy. U402 to the left is a big Flash device (ST) and completely left we find and SDRAM from micron. This thing packs a punch... and runs Windows CE as an os. Boots in 2 seconds flat.third image. the little qfn we saw on the bottom of the board i an AD9517 multi-outout clock generator. They make a multi-phasic clock with this thing and it looks like they all go in the FPGA. i guess they use this to make logic that interleaves in time to spead up things.fourth image : the screamer DAC. this is a 250 MHz dual channel 16 bit, yes, count em 16 bit dac ... the unpopulated footprint is for the dual channel version (33522).fifth image : overview of the main board. Left is all power supply and distribution. The board gets a single 5 volt supply from a COTS brick.the grey box under the flex holds the master clock oscillator ( on the backside there sits that multiphase clock generator )below we find a Cyclone 3C25 FPGA with to the right another SDRAM. below the FPGA sits that TXDAC followed by the heatsink of the output amplifier , filter bank relays and in the tin can topside the output attenuator.the empty space in the middle can hold an identical clone fo the entire dac -> output stage and to the left of the fpga is room for another sdram for that second channel.sixt image: We're bootin'.Seventh image : some wacky arb signal left in there by the previous owner.i'll post some more succulent info tomorrow and a bunch of additional screenshots of the different things this machine offers. it is -very- extensive.

author: DaveW
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 07:50:28 am
content: My 3352B arrives from the Element14 Roadtest, and the first thing I see is that someone's just done a teardown. Typical...! Nice find though, some serious performance in there!

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 10:36:22 am
content: Quote from: DaveW on October 12, 2012, 07:50:28 amSo you're the one who won!and at the same time

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 11:25:57 am
content: I hate you all.(Not you T4P)

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 11:47:53 am
content: Quote from: EdoNork on October 12, 2012, 11:25:57 amI know i know

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 05:42:19 pm
content: Congratulations, freee-, do you mean binary 8 instead of 4?0100b = 4d1000b = 8d~ $100 vs $1000? However, if the below is true your hint is more a riddle as the full amount would be100 0000 0001bwith the MSB ~ 100 = 4dhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/Agilent-33521A-30MHz-Function-Arbitrary-Waveform-Generator-250MS-HP-Tektronix-/320993724393?item=320993724393&ViewItem=&nma=true&si=bs25lwHZI%2FW8xQkdmkJ3TTzNr%2Fw%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557Quote from: free_electron on October 12, 2012, 06:41:32 am

author: billclay
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 06:18:06 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on October 12, 2012, 06:41:32 amWhat does a biochemist do with an AWG?

author: StubbornGreek
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 06:49:12 pm
content: Quote from: billclay on October 12, 2012, 06:18:06 pmThat's what I was thinking...free_electron, you practically stole that thing, good find!

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 07:21:56 pm
content: 100$ is what i paid for it...I dont' know. It was in the pile labeled 'electrophoresis lab'. There was some other stuff in that pile as well. a high voltage amplifier ( 0..300 volt , 0..10mA ) and some other weird things. Glass plates with electrodes glued to them . Didnt want to rummage through it. who knows what chemicals it had been in contact with. i grabbed this thing , paid my 100$ and got the hell out of there.. ( just in case someone would get second thoughts about the price ).

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 07:39:03 pm
content: Most excellent! That amplifier is likely a gel electrophoresis PSU; range 300-3000VDC, I got one off such a sale, $10, its sold new for $5,000, I use it for kV generation. The glass plates with electrodes on them are the gel plates. Basically think of clean jello rectangle; like electroplating put one electrode on each end; put 1 drop of test sample on end of the plate, subject it to 300VDC or more, the molecules will migrate to each electrode depending on its size and final charge, small migrating faster than big, so now you've separated a mix of molecules. The time for the test is arbitrary, you simple want to separate the mixture into its components; higher voltage, faster the migration, but potentially less discrimination between similar size molecules. To find the molecules, you drop a dye on the jello that changes color if a particularly molecule is there. To extract it, cut it out of the jello and dissolve it in a solvent.Now as to the AWG, I'm clueless too.Bioresearch labs are great for surplus gear. Once the grant cycle is over, all the equipment is trashed. When a grant is funded, they request money to buy all new gear, because they have no time to repair gear as time is of the essence, so they buy entirely new labs 90% of the time. Commercial labs aren't as frivolous.Quote from: free_electron on October 12, 2012, 07:21:56 pm

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2012, 07:49:26 pm
content: kinda like those dna -ribbon strips ?

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 13, 2012, 11:27:03 pm
content: Exactly. Depending on the experimental setup, potentially harmful chemicals may or may not come in contact with the plates. Sometimes fancy signals other than DC are used to generate the electric field.This article(full text behind a paywall) describes a setup that sounds similar to the one you encountered:Quote from: Li, Chen and Ugaz: Anal. Chem. 2010They periodically switch polarity, and since larger molecules takes longer to align to the new electric field, they get separated from the smaller molecules. They use square waves with periods in the Hz range, but maybe fancier signals could be used for other applications.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2012, 11:42:51 pm
content: Thanks alm, a variant of field inversion gel electrophoresis, news to me. The equipment sounds very much like your quote:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21409622

author: prenato
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2012, 11:53:09 pm
content: That's an amazing deal free_electron. I'm wondering how youfind about these closeout sales? I would like to build-out myHome lab but don't know where to find deals like this...

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2012, 04:45:25 pm
content: 1) live in the bay area or any other 'techno' rich area2) little birds3) if you think i'm going to give away my sources ... think again ...