Got a free Agilent 34970A D.A. unit. Is it usefull?

[guy2600]

Work was consolidating the lab and was throwing out a bunch of full cabinets. The VP told me I can have anything I found in them (seriously, isn't this an absolute dream moment?!). Anyways, among the junk was a virtually brand new Agilent 34970A data acquisition unit with an Agilent 34902A 16 channel "box" installed in the back. I'm a mechanical guy and like to dabble in electronics but not that knowledgeable in this arena. Forgive my total ignorance, but what does this do and what can be done with it at a practical level (say someone who's taking some electronic courses, learning and playing with electronic experiments etc)? Can you do fun stuff with it? In my little home R&D lab I've picked up the basics (variable power supply, oscilloscope etc) and starting to play again. Also, what does the plug in box allow me to do? There's a bag of cards and cables that I now believe go with this thing back at work that I'll pick up tomorrow and post a pic of. Thanks in advance for any insight!

[alm]

The Agilent 34970A accepts plug-in modules (like the 34902A) and can switch between measuring many input channels. In an automated test setup, you might have 16 test fixtures wired to the same DAQ, which is measuring some parameter. Not that useful for your average home lab. The good part is that it contains a 6.5 digit DMM (essentially an Agilent 34401A), unless it has option 001 (deletes DMM).

I'm not sure what used prices are like, but you could consider selling it and use the money to buy another piece of gear.

[poodyp]

Just checked ebay, they start at $600USD and go up from there. Modules are $80USD and up.

It is somewhat specialized and overkill for anything most of us would do, but I'd love to have one  .

[nanofrog]

+1 on selling it  , then using the funds to buy something you can actually use regularly.

[free_electron]

Essentially a 34401 with an input multiplexer.
I got one of these as well.

Look at the back around the power plug. There is a little text with a hollow dot. That says option 001. That dot should be hollow, then you have the multimeter installed.

Simply wire up the multiplexer card with 5 wires and you have a really good multimeter.
You can get the manual from agilent.


Select channel with the rotary button and press close.
Then hit monitor button and turn the knob until it shows what you want to see. Volts ohms current etc. hit monitor again and you will get the display.

A bit more annoying than a real multimeter but usable. These machines are normally driven under remote control and can scan their inputs very fast.

eBay prices are too high. A complete unit without plugins and with multimeter goes for 450 to 500 . New this machine is around 900$. Modules are around 100$ except the rf module, that's like 150 .

For hobby these machines are not very usefull unless you need to track things over time.
Like I said you can use it as a multimeter, but you could easily trade it on ebay for a real 34401.